Garlic Mustard. The scientific name of garlic
mustard is Alliaria petiolata. Some of the other common names for garlic
mustard include the following: garlic mustard; hedge garlic; sauce-alone;
jack-by-the-hedge; poor man's mustard; jack-in-the-bush; garlic root; garlic
wort; and mustard root. The plant is a native of Europe and was
introduced in the United States
in the 1800s. It was cultivated for food and medicinal use. The
plant can be found in most of the United States as well as eastern Canada to
the south of Virginia and as far west as Kansas and Nebraska.
The plant is actually a biennial herb that grows in the cool season. Its
leaves are stalked, triangular to a heart-shape, and are coarsely
toothed. When crushed the leaves give off an odor of garlic. The
plant grows approximately two to three and a half feet in height and produces
button like clusters of small white flowers that contain four petals in the
shape of a cross. The plant grows best in moist, shaded soil of rivers,
floodplains, forests, roadsides, edges of woods, trail edges, and forest
openings. The plant is fertile with calcareous soils, but is incompatible
to high acidity. Garlic mustard has a life cycle of about two
years. It spends the first half of its two year life cycle as a rosette
of leaves. Then garlic mustard plants develop rapidly in the following
spring and mature into plants that flower. The plant produced seed and
then dies by late June. One plant can produce thousands of seeds. Garlic
mustard can disperse at a rapid pace through self fertilization,
cross-pollination due to insects, human activity, and wildlife activity.
The goal for the management of garlic mustard requires a long term
commitment. Some of the ways garlic mustard has been controlled include
hand pulling of the plant where there are few infestations. In areas
where there are larger infestations simple hand pulling may not be an
option. In these cases the plant must be cut at ground level. In
areas where the plant is heavily infested, herbicides such as Roundup have been
used to control the spread of the plant. Fire has also been known as a
useful way of control of garlic mustard.
the Kudzu. The scientific name for kudzu
is Pueraria Montana.
Kudzu was introduced in the United
States in
the 1800s for erosion control. It tends to grow rapidly in the
southeastern United
States and
is sometimes known as “the plant that ate the South.” Kudzu belongs in the pea
family, or Fabaceae, along with about twenty other types of species. Kudzu
is a perennial vine that is capable of reaching heights from 66-98 feet in
trees. Kudzu also grows on lower terrain as well. The texture of
kudzu is woody and the plant loses its foliage for part of the year. The
flower that grows from kudzu is long, purple, and fragrant. The flower
produces nectar so it attracts different types of insects including bees,
butterflies, and moths. Kudzu usually flowers in late summer and grows
well and rapidly under many types of conditions and in different soils.
However, kudzu grows best where winters do not drop below -15 degrees C (5
degrees Fahrenheit), and summer temperatures are normally about 80 degrees
Fahrenheit. Although kudzu grows in different areas, its preferred
habitat is along forest edges, fields that have been abandoned, roadsides, and
places where sunlight is abundant. In order to control the spread of
kudzu, it is important to destroy the root; otherwise the plant can be
viable. Each year the government spends large amounts of money in the
efforts of controlling this plant. New studies with herbicides are being
used, as well as an experiment using goats in order to control kudzu.
Kudzu serves several purposes. The leaves of kudzu can be used for
salads. Kudzu has also been known as a medicinal treatment for the
reduction of hangovers as well as alcoholic cravings. Kudzu is also used
to feed livestock
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