Observations by christine70

Orchardgrass es una hierba perenne agresiva que está muy extendida en California. Crece en cualquier tipo de suelo, es resistente a la sequía y puede invadir algunas praderas. Orchardgrass es un pasto deseable, pero ha escapado de cultivos en muchas áreas naturales en todo Estados Unidos.
Puede invadir los bosques de roble y desplazar a los pastos nativos. Es una amenaza emergente en los pastizales costeros de pradera.
La vida silvestre se lo comerá.
Orchardgrass llegó con colonos europeos en el siglo XVIII.
Reconócelo:
Es una hierba de tallo delgado que crece de 18 a 4 pies de alto. Se desarrolla en grupos. Las hojas son azuladas, de media pulgada de ancho, planas y con una costilla blanca en el centro. Florece de mayo a agosto, flores amarillas en un grupo compacto. De dos a cuatro racimos estarán en una rama, cerca de la punta.
La rama más baja se separa como el espolón en el pie de un gallo, por lo que a veces se llama Pie de Gallo.
Controlarlo:
Las hierbas de racimo se pueden tirar con la mano. En áreas extensas, el glifosato es efectivo.

It’s native to Eurasia but has now invaded all of North America.
Recognize it: It grows one to three feet tall, depending on the moisture and fertility of the soil. It can bolt upward and form flowerheads very quickly during the summer.
It oozes a milky latex from broken leaves and stems.
The stem can be thick but hollow, and red. Its flowers are like little dandelions. It’s not a true thistle, but its prickly leaves make its name understandable.

Control it:
The young leaves are edible, and livestock may eat them. So livestock pastures may not be invaded, because the cows take care of it.
It has a single taproot but is usually shallow rooted and easy to pull. Cutting it is also effective, although repeat cuttings will be needed. Because it produces so many seeds, return often to pull or cut new plants.
Glyphosate is effective, but consult a professional for large areas.
One study found it to have some antibiotic effects, especially on skin infections. Stick to commercial preparations and hand pull this weed from your yard.

I've heard this called Bird's Beak, for the long, pointed seed pod. Others call it Stork's Bill. It's aggressive and out-competes native plants, covering the landscape. Livestock and wildlife can eat it, when it's young and tender. It doesn't provide good wildlife cover.
Recognize it: it starts as rosettes on the ground and grows up to 2 feet tall in its second year. It has little five-petalled pink to lavender flowers.
Control it: Pulling it or disking the soil can help control it. Dicamba and glyphosate are effective. Get professional advice.

Sweet Fennel smells like licorice or anise. It’s the plant whose seeds are used in flavoring sausage, liquor and other foods. Those seeds spread across the landscape and make this plant a troublesome invader.
Sweet Fennel not only takes over space, light and soil nutrients. It may also shed substances that make it hard for other plants to grow. Even after stands of Sweet Fennel are removed, native plants do not grow.
Sweet Fennel probably arrived on the East Coast with early European settlers. It’s been in California for at least 120 years.
Recognize it:
Sweet Fennel grows 4 to 10 feet tall. It has feathery leaves and tall canes. Flowers are tiny and yellow, in clusters that form an umbrella shape.
Do not confuse it with Poison Hemlock. Always wear gloves.
Control it:
Digging out individual plants is the only sure way to remove it. mowing it keeps the roots alive and they will re-grow. Cutting the plants to reduce size may exhaust the taproot, making it easier to remove on later visits.
Herbicides triclopyr and glyphosate are effective. Consult a professional for their use.
Seeds will persist in the ground for many years.

Orchardgrass is an aggressive perennial grass that is widespread in California. It grows in any type of soil, is drought resistant, and can overrun-some grasslands. Orchardgrass is a desirable pasture grass but has escaped cultivation in many natural areas throughout the United States.
It can invade oak woodlands and displace native grasses. It is an emerging threat in coastal prairie grasslands.
Wildlife will eat it.
Orchardgrass arrived with European settlers in the 1700s.
Recognize it:
It’s a thin-stemmed grass that grows 18 inches to 4 feet tall. It develops in clumps. The leaves are bluish, half an inch wide, flat with a white rib down the middle. It blooms from May through August, yellow flowers in a compact cluster. Two to four clusters will be on a branch, near the tip.
The lowest branch separates like the spur on a rooster’s foot, so it’s sometimes called Cock’s Foot.
Control it:
Bunch grasses can be hand pulled. Over wide areas, glyphosate is effective.

Nasturtium is the right plant in the wrong place. It’s a pretty flower in the garden. Its leaves and flowers are even edible and nutritious, with high Vitamin C. However, once it escapes the garden, it out-competes native plants and takes over.
It’s a good companion plant in gardens, naturally deterring various insect pests. It’s especially planted around squashes and brassicas such as broccoli and cauliflower.
It’s so pretty, people use the flowers to decorate plates and on cakes.
Recognize it:
Its bright orange flowers are easy to see. Its round, nearly circular leaves are dull grayish green. It grows in trailing vines 6 to 10 feet long that climb over other shrubs.
Control it:
Hand pull it. Persuade others to eat it. If you plant it in your garden, keep it in containers so that it won’t escape. It is an annual, but reproduces by seeds. Established stands may return the following year. Pull them before they go to seed. Patrol this and it can be eliminated.

Buckhorn Plantain is a perennial weed that grows from a thick crown of roots. Buds at the top of the root grow into new plants.
It is a popular medicinal herb, used as a tea of the brewed leaves or a poultice made of wet leaves.
In the wild, Buckhorn Plantain crowds out native plants. At home, it infests sports turf and ornamental gardens.
Recognize it:
Buckhorn Plantain grows as a rosette of narrow oval leaves, 3 to 12 inches long, ¾ to 1 ½ inches wide. The base of the leaves and the crown of the plant are covered in wooly hairs. Leafless flower stems grow 4 to 16 inches tall, topped with a cluster of tiny white flowers 1 to 2 inches long. Each flower can produce 2 seeds.
Control it:
Dig out the roots but be prepared to return to dig out new plants. Remove new plants before they go to seed. Buckhorn Plantain can reproduce both by the buds around the roots and by seed.
Chemical herbicides such as 2,4-D and glyphosate are effective, especially when applied in the fall.
Fabric mulches that prevent sunlight from reaching the plants can be effective. Organic mulch 6 inches deep can be effective. Return often to removed seedlings and restore the thickness of the mulch

This annoying trailing vine-like plant is famous as the emblem of the fictional hero the Scarlet Pimpernel. To landscapers, it’s known as a toxic plant that can sicken livestock and irritate human skin. Always wear gloves when working around it. Not everyone’s skin is sensitive to it.
Recognize it:
It creeps along the ground, no taller than ten inches, with strangling tendrils which can be as long as ten inches with small oval green leaves. The tiny quarter-inch, five-petal flowers are usually salmon pink to orange in the Central Coast, but can be red, bright blue or white. They open only in sunny weather, giving it the common name ‘poor man’s weather-glass.’
Control it:
Pull it by hand, best before it goes to seed. Wear gloves. Return to pull new growth regularly.
Solarization can kill the tiny seeds left in the ground. Cover the ground with clear plastic and secure it around the edge. The sun will heat the soil and kill the seeds. Leave it in place for at least six weeks

Bristly Oxtongue is a nasty, prickery weed that can grow densely along trails and in fields. It crowds out native plants.
It’s used in traditional medicine as a wormer.
Recognize it:
It’s a spindly plant as tall as three feet with wide branching stiff, woody stems. The leaves have distinctive pimples. It has yellow dandelion-like flowers 1-2 inches wide nestled in cups of bristly pointed leaves.
When the stems or leaves are broken, they ooze milky sap.
Control it:
Remove it by hand pulling, string trimming or hoeing when soil is moist. Roots two inches below the surface must be removed to insure it won’t regrow. Repeated mowing may suppress plants, but they may grow back if mowing is ended.
Plants sprout from seeds into rosettes, which bolt into plants in late spring.
Herbicides such as 2,4-D and glyphosate are effective

Vinca major (Big Periwinkle) is a fast growing, spreading perennial vine that forms a dense carpet of ground cover. Below, its roots make a thick mat, crowding out native ground cover, tree seedlings and all other plants.
Vinca varieties are sold as landscape plants. The Big Periwinkle is the most invasive.
Vinca may alter local fuel characteristics by changing community structure, litter dynamics, fuel arrangement, and understory temperatures.
Recognize it:
Vinca’s leaves are glossy, dark green pairs 3” long, facing each other along the stem. The flowers are five-lobed blue single blooms on stems about a foot and a half long. Vinca also produces long, trailing stems without flowers.
Control it:
Hand pull it and roll it up. Since it resprouts from root and stem fragments, anything left behind is likely to grow a new plant. Or, cut the plants close to the ground and cover the area with weed fabric, black plastic or cardboard and leave it for a year or two before restoring vegetation.
Spraying the cut stems immediately, within a minute, after hand removal with a 2 percent glyphosate solution may kill it.
Let the plants dry out on tarps and decompose, or bag and dispose of it as green waste.
Monitor the area and continue to pull new growth every three months.

Young leaves of New Zealand Spinach are edible, raw in salads or cooked. Older leaves get bitter and tough. Perhaps we can persuade people to remove it and eat it. It escaped from gardens and has become naturalized on the Central Coast. It spreads and forms a dense web of roots and vines that chokes out native vegetation.
It is not a true spinach. It tolerates heat and drought better than spinach. Salty soil doesn’t bother it. It thrives on the Central Coast.
Native people rarely ate it. Captain Cook’s expedition in the 18th century consumed it as a cure for scurvy. It is a good source of Vitamin C.
Recognize it:
Slightly fuzzy, triangular leaves on trailing vine-like stems. It grows thick and crawls over obstacles.
Control it:
Pull up by the roots. The heavy vegetation can be rolled into mats. Allow it to wilt for a few days to reduce water weight. Dispose in green waste bins.

Cape Ivy is an attractive vine that curls around tree trunks and meanders across the landscape. Its smooth, bright green leaves and stems hold water, making this vine able to survive long dry periods. Any part of the plant except the leaves can root if it touches the ground. It reproduces from plant parts, not seeds. Any bit of plant left behind may resprout. It is so difficult to eradicate that it may be more reasonable to contain it by clearing a perimeter around a section to control it.
Recognize it:
Cape Ivy is a climbing perennial vine. Vines form dense mats of vegetation over trees and shrubs, killing plants underneath. It is toxic to animals. It can kill fish when plant materials are soaking in waterways. Stem, rhizome and stolon fragments resprout if left in the ground after treatment.
Control it:
Contain the patch, then remove all vegetation. Hand pull all that you can see. Dig out stolons, the points along the vine where it takes root, although this may not be possible in archaeologically sensitive sites. Let it dry out and then bag it and dispose of it in green waste. Repeat frequently, every two months in moist areas and not less often than every six months in dry places. Expect to spend three or four years removing bits and pieces of Cape Ivy to eradicate it. Native plants will eventually return.
It can be sprayed with a weak glyphosate solution. Check for details. The concentration needs to be weak so that it does not kill the leaves but is absorbed and transported to kill the stolons.