What Is the Things in Weeds That Stick to Socks
Cheatgrass one of most-hated, prevalent invasive weeds
Cheatgrass has been a very successful American invader, spreading readily across the West.
For the past couple of weeks the dog walks I have taken have become quite uncomfortable. My ankle-high boots are a tad short to protect my socks and the cheatgrass seeds have pierced my socks and the lining of my boots.
When I get back home, I have to take off my boots and socks and remove a dozen or more cheatgrass seeds from them before I can wear them again.
Cheatgrass ranks toward the top of my most-hated noxious weeds, outranked only by Russian olive and salt cedar (tamarisk). Cheatgrass is the most common plant in North America and has done particularly well in the West.
A botanist told me the plant got to North America in two ways from Eurasia.
From the West Coast cheatgrass arrived as packing material for china. The plates, bowls, etc. were packed in straw largely composed of cheatgrass. After the recipient unpacked the china, the straw was tossed and in no time cheatgrass sprung up.
Another source of cheatgrass came from middle European immigrants. Many of these people brought their straw mattresses with them and after arriving in the United States the worn out mattresses were discarded.
Cheatgrass has some great competitive advantages that many native perennial grasses don't have. For one, cheatgrass is an annual grass. It flowers in the spring and escapes dry or drought conditions by existing as seed. It germinates in the fall and overwinters as a seedling much like winter wheat. The seedling's roots are able to expand over the winter so when spring arrives the grass has a competitive advantage over other plants to soak up available moisture and nutrients.
Cheatgrass seeds are dispersed by wind, small rodents, attachment to animal fur, contaminated hay, straw and grain and in machinery. Cheatgrass seeds can cause lesions and sores on curly haired dogs and sheep. Sometimes cheatgrass awns — the grass' bristle — will lodge in the ears of dogs.
In good years a single clump of cheatgrass can produce more than 300 seeds. In a bad year, the plant can still produce seed when it is only 2 ½ inches tall. A stand of cheatgrass may produce as much as 400 pounds of seed per acre and there are 150,000 seeds per pound.
The seeds are viable in the ground for a period of two to five years; in dry storage up to 10 years.
Since cheatgrass invades disturbed areas readily, it can easily take over a burned area. Species such as big sage don't root sprout and perennial grasses are often knocked back or killed by a summer burn, so cheatgrass gets a foothold. Fires tend to perpetuate cheatgrass.
About the only species that benefits from cheatgrass is the chukar partridge. A study conducted way back when found that a primary food of the Eurasian game bird is cheatgrass. Chukars were introduced into the United States in the late 1940s because of the prevalence of the grass in the West.
According to a Cornell University bulletin, "Chukars' preferred foods are the leaves and seeds of annual and perennial grasses, primarily introduced cheatgrass ... During the late fall and winter, green grass leaves provide the bulk of their diet."
While there are some herbicides such as Plateau that can control cheatgrass, there are so many thousands of acres infested with this weed that it would be impossible to ever eliminate it from the landscape. Some biological controls are promising, e.g. Pseudomonas fluorscens, but it looks like this invasive species will continue to dominate the landscape for decades to come.
I guess I will have to continue to pull cheatgrass seeds from my boots and socks and monitor my dogs so they don't end up with seeds in their ears.
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What Is the Things in Weeds That Stick to Socks
Source: https://billingsgazette.com/lifestyles/recreation/cheatgrass-one-of-most-hated-prevalent-invasive-weeds/article_8e475a13-35eb-5a84-9b58-c0d29c9ca287.html
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