Beneficial noxious weeds

Chris J. Durden drdn at mail.utexas.edu
Sun Jan 23 10:35:40 EST 2000


Thanks for posting additional information on spotted knapweed.

I am disturbed by the lack of any mention in your sources of the suspected
tumor initiating agent in spotted knapweed. Hand eradication is suggested,
but no mention is made of the advisability of wearing gloves while pulling.

Also disturbing is the possibility of flower heads of spotted knapweed
entering the human food chain. On more than one occasion I have found
flower heads in packages of frozen peas. They are close in size to medium
peas and obviously pass through the sorting ptocess. 

May we have locations of local demes of Karner blues eliminated by spotted
knapweed?
..........Chris Durden

At 10:37  21/01/00 -0500, you wrote:
>Before folks get too enamored with weeds that can wreck ecological havoc,
take
>a look at the following two web pages. the first will take you to a specific
>page for spotted knapweed, (which is known to have eliminated local demes of
>Karner blues).  This is in no way a beneficial species, even if
butterflies do
>take nectar from it.
>
>http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/documnts/centmac.html
>
>The next link is the searchable database, which will allow you to find
>authoritative information on almost all the major wildland weeds that cause
>ecological disruption in the US (including Hawaii and Puerto Rico) and
adjacent
>portions of Mexico and Canada.
>
>http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs.html
>
>Take a close look species before you try and  paint them in a pleasant light.
>And note that native milkweeds are not considered by The Conservancy to be
>wildland weeds - although other organizations may consider them to be
>agricultural pests.
>
>--
>John Shuey
>Director of Conservation Science
>Indiana Office of The Nature Conservancy
>
>phone:  317-923-7547
>fax:  317-923-7582
>email:  Jshuey at tnc.org
>
>


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