At a workshop at Mercer Arboretum on Saturday, their botanist passed out a brochure from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. I had recently found this weed for the first time in my back yard in Houston. It is a native of Argentina that somehow has found its way to the US, it has been here only for a few years.
One plant can produce up to one million seeds and they recommend aggressive control measures be started in the spring. Here's what the Legacy Land Trust recommends.
1) Dig it up and bag it before the seed pods mature in the spring. Dig deeply with a sharp shooter.
2) Replace the plant with native plants or wildflower seeds.
David Rosen of the US Fish and Wildlife Service says, "It's so tenacious that it's choking out native plant species. This loss in habitat threatens to carry up the food chain. If we lose the native plant habitat, we can expect insect diversity to decrease. That in turn, will affect the food source for local and migratory songbirds. If this weed spreads as it has been, we could eventually see a loss in wildlife. Early detection is key to controlling the spread of deeprooted sedge."
Photos at The Nature Conservancy website:
http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/cypeentr.html
Deeprooted Sedge - invasive warning
Ooohhh, that sounds nasty. Thanks for posting the link. I haven't seen any of that one, but I have plenty of others that keep my back well exercised!
Crow
Yes - someone from the group volunteering on Little Cypress Creek preserve said it was the hardest workout she'd had in ages. It would be much easier to eliminate one plant at a time than a field of them, so I thought folks might like a heads up.
Yes, thank you for the warning, I will watch out for it.