setanmerah,- It is heartening to see so many
people being committed stewards of their land who are working to eradicate the
noxious weeds on their property. Thank you to everyone who is
participating! A word of caution - it is possible to be a
little too enthusiastic. This happens when someone pulls or treats the wrong
plant – a plant that has the misfortune of looking like a noxious weed. These
look-alike plants are often native, and can provide good habitat for
pollinators, or at the very least, will occupy space that otherwise could be
invaded by a noxious weed, so it’s best to learn how to distinguish which is
which.Some of the most common mistaken identities up here are:
- Golden banner/yellow toadflax,
- Pineapple weed/scentless chamomile,
- Cutleaf daisy/oxeye daisy
- Fireweed/purple loosestrife.
Golden banner is a native plant – it
blooms in the spring, and has solid yellow flowers, and three-lobed
(trifoliate) leaves. Yellow toadflax blooms in the second half of summer with
two-tone yellow flowers with a darker throat, and has strap-shaped leaves.
Yellow
toadflax
Pineapple weed, while an introduced
plant, is not on the noxious weed list. It is, however, having a very good
year, and can be easily controlled by hoeing or pulling. It has ferny
leaves that, when crushed, smell like pineapple. The whole plant only gets to
6-8” tall at the most. It develops small yellow buttons, but never white
‘petals’ (ray flowers). Scentless chamomile also has ferny leaves, but they
have no odor (the plant names give good ID clues). It gets up to 3’ tall, and
has hundreds of white flowers.
Pineapple weed
Scentless chamomile
Cut-leaf daisy and penstemon
Oxeye daisy
Fireweed is a native plant with 4 pink petals. It blooms mid-summer to fall. The leaves are alternate, and the plant can grow up to 4’ tall. Purple loosestrife is not known to be up at this elevation, but people have frequently pulled out fireweed by mistake. Loosestrife has opposite leaves (or even whorled – meaning that four leaves come out of the stalk at the same place). It has 5-7 purple petals and can grow up to 8’ tall.
Fireweed
Loosestrife
Finally, we have many wonderful native thistles, and it’s easier to just learn to recognize our two common noxious thistles, Canada thistle and musk thistle, rather than all of the native thistles. Musk thistle has large, solitary purple flowers with a formidable row of teeth under the flower. The leaves have a whitish edge. Canada thistle usually forms thickets due to the root system, and has clusters of small purple flowers. See below table for a quick reference to distinguishing these plants.
For more information and pictures, we have a brochure online: https://gilpin.extension.colostate.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/29/2016/09/Noxious-weed-look-alikes.pdf.
For more information on thistles, see this brochure: https://www.larimer.org/sites/default/files/uploads/2017/finaltg2nded.pdf
Or here: https://gilpin.extension.colostate.edu/programs/natu/native-thistle/
Irene Shonle is the CSU Extension Agent and Director in Gilpin County
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ReplyThe best strategy is to weed when they are young seedlings. You can use a hoe and with little effort eliminate the majority of the weeds.Order Weed Online
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