hope this shouldnt be in the Plant Identify forum... but i think this one is invasive.. .and i'd like to find out what it is.
see the insert of the thorns? yikes, they are HUGE.
about a dozen of these just popped up after i was doing some digging 2 yrs ago and tried to pull the root... and this is what i have now.
TIA,
Terese
You are the proud owner of a nest of Robinia pseudoacacia, black locust.
You probably disturbed the roots of a parent tree nearby with your digging, and you'll get suckering growth from every one of them.
That's going to be tough to be rid of, without killing the original plant too. Black locusts are colonizers on a good day, and rampant thorny fiends if they are particularly happy and malevolent.
They are North American natives, however, though I don't know if it normally occurs as far north as your part of IL.
They are viewed as being invasive by us. Where we live is allegedly way too far north out of their natural range to be native/indigenous. I "stole" some of these beauties from a friend's property and transplanted them here where I live before we even started breaking ground for this house. I loved those drooping white racemes that hung down so elegantly in spring. Big mistake on my behalf for the very same reasons you described above. This plant can colonize! And rapidly too!
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=ROPS
Although the USDA map shows this plant occurring in almost every state, the map is flawed in that it is not differentiating between states in which is occurs naturally and those in which it has “naturalized”. It’s natural range would be the southeastern States. Elsewhere, it proves to be extremely aggressive if not invasive. Part of the reason why we see it naturalized everywhere is because it was once routinely used to control erosion.
If you want to get rid of it, you could try glyphosate once it leafs out. Glyphosate is the active ingredient in RoundUp. Mine were small like yours. When they are small like ours, you can place a tarp around the base to avoid killing off other plants in the area and spray away to your heart's content. Sometimes I use large cardboard boxes and slip them around the plant and spray down onto the leaves. I didn't use RU for mine though. I used Garlon 3A which I don't know if you can buy or not. The active ingredient in that product is Triclopyr which is also the active ingredient in Ortho's BrushBGon and Enforcer Brush Killer. You can probably pick one of those up where ever you buy the Poast or Ortho's GrassBGon.
thanks... and there really isn't any other plants in the area -- it is the area i've been talking about a long time, that i'm cleaning up.
I honestly don't know where the "mother" plant is of the black locust.... Possibly on the other side of the huge highway fence.
but -- definitely will be getting rid of it.
thanks for the info.
Terese
**who should stock up on anythingBGon
Toss a rope or garden hose over the sound wall and then the next time you are driving past that area of 355 look for your marker yourself to see what's growing on the other side. If it is over on the other side, maybe you could ask that it be destroyed. For Black Locust that are larger, they use a different technique to get rid of them.
I actually can get back there pretty easily.... about 150' from my back the fence ends, and there is a chain link i can climb over.
i'm a tad north of where 355 ends.... 290 and Thorndale.
I was thinking 294 but then you're in Itasca so I figured it was 290. Glad you have a sound wall like that! Good for you. Bet you were glad when that went up.
This website shows native range http://www.na.fs.fed.us/pubs/silvics_manual/volume_2/robinia/pseudoacacia.htm Looks like it's only native to extreme southern Illinois.
There's some debate out there as to whether populations in Indiana, Illinois, and the other states farther west are indigenous or not. I don't know what the particulars are though.
