Monday, April 20, 2009

Pretty Yellow Flowers






There is nothing like a splash of color in the landscape after a long dreary winter. So you’d think that folks would be excited and happy to see Lesser Celandine, Ranunculus ficaria which started blooming a couple weeks ago. It is still blooming now. You will most likely see it in low lying, moist areas such as stream banks. For a close look, go to the park in Edison along the Neshaminy Creek or the North Branch of Neshaminy Creek where it crosses Rt 611, south of Plumsteadville.

Besides the eight petaled, yellow flowers that rise slightly above the foliage, you’ll see that the very dark green, shinny leaves are kidney/heart shaped and somewhat waxy. Below ground you’ll find finger like tubers. Late in the season, cream colored aerial bulblets will form along the stems. You’ll only see it from March until June; then it fades away. It is often found in large, expansive masses. Once you have an eye for Lesser Celandine you’ll see it in other places. A friend’s entire small back yard is composed of it at this time of year.

This exotic (not native), invasive plant is called a spring ephemeral. It emerges before the hardwood trees leaf out, grows enough foliage to store energy in underground tubers, produces flowers and above ground bulblets and then fades away.

Ephemeral. But very invasive and does not play well with other plants. It will out-compete less aggressive ephemerals. The pretty tout lily is emerging now too and it does not appear to have a chance to win a battle for space and light with lesser celandine. That’s the problems with these invasive exotics. They are better adapted to their new home than the natives.If you see an isolated lesser celandine plant, kill it... or plan to enjoy it forever.


If this plant is getting the better of your landscape, you can apply glyphosate (Roundup, other names) now and get some control. If there are infestations near-by or if you live along a steam you’ll probably get re-infested via aerial bulblets. In drier, isolated landscape settings you might will the battle. Where very small infestations exist, just shovel it out. Be sure to get the tubers.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Guiser,

This is not directly related to your last post, although I found it most interesting.

I'm certain that there are other readers who are interested in the topic of snail control.

I'm often impressed that you seem to resort to chemical means as a last resort. Do you suggest any natural means of keeping snails in check, or, if not, what is the least invasive means to keep them out of my garden?

Any advice?

Thanks for a great service.

-Herrenzimmer

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr. Guiser,

This is not directly related to your last post, although I found it most interesting.

I'm certain that there are other readers who are interested in the topic of snail control.

I'm often impressed that you seem to resort to chemical means as a last resort. Do you suggest any natural means of keeping snails in check, or, if not, what is the least invasive means to keep them out of my garden?

Any advice?

Thanks for a great service.

-Herrenzimmer

Scott Guiser said...

Ahh Herr Zimmer... thanks for the kind words.

Slugs... check out these two excellent slug sites,http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2010.html; http://extension.oregonstate.edu/news/story.php?S_No=805&storyType=garde one from Oregon State University and the other from Ohio State University, Penn State's sister Land Grant Universities.
I'll bet Oregon has more than it's share of slug problems. Bottom line.. try some iron phosphate baits. Low toxicity and effective. I used iron phospate in my stawberry patch last year with good sucess. The Oregon researches found it to be as effective as the more toxic alternative. Apparently Europe ahs been using it longer than the US of A.