Work is officially underway to reduce the wildness of the arboretum's volunteer recruitment zone. You can read about this special area on a previous blog post, found here. It can be difficult deciding which plants get to stay and which plants must go. However, given the specific site attributes, some species won't do well here in the long term. This is a shady, uphill area; not a good place to showcase wetland species. As horticulturists and gardeners eventually learn, allowing plants to grow up in a bad location may create unnecessary work down the line, as they still grow large enough to create a big mess when they eventually succumb. Therefore, it was an easy decision to begin the removal of groundsel (Baccharis halimifolia), a shrub that grows profusely along waterways.
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The volunteer recruitment zone is home to groundsel, which is no surprise given its regional status as a highly successful colonizer.
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Many different unrelated species of plants are called "groundsel," but that name most commonly indicates Baccharis halimifolia.
The groundsel bush is a dioecious, decidious shrub native to the Southeast, from
the gulf coast to the mid-atlantic states. Tolerant of both drought & wet locations, rarely browsed by animals, groundsel can form
monotonous stands that prohibit the development of other worthwhile
species. It is however a major food source for bees and other flying insects
during its flowering season.
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Groundsel leaves alternate along the stem.
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Alternating leaves
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This fresh green leaf is noticeably slender and toothed.
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Upper leaves are strongly oval-shaped.
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Here we can see leaf shape variation.
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Lower leaves are rounder, but still show the same "coarse teeth" and smooth texture of the upper leaves.
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The bark is striated, with vertical bands of green, grey, and brown. This is young bark; at most, this shrub is four years old.
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We removed all the tall groundsel shrubs from the volunteer
recruitment area. The tallest shrub measured nearly 9 feet. Some of the small to medium size clumps were cut as
well, simply because they were visible. This is a hefty amount of green material.
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This photo was taken before the groundsel was removed.
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Our mini-wilderness area is still thick with plant life; this is a photo after the groundsel was removed. Not much changed. It's difficult to tell that anything is missing.
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Groundsel is notoriously resilient, so don't worry; even with this culling it'll be back soon. However, this particular location in the arboretum isn't ideal for groundsel: we want to see it in wetter locations. We might try relocating small plants to sunny areas near the drainage channels.
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See our previous posts which contain photos (credit to Bonnie Bernard) of groundsel, from
January 2012 and
March 2012. That's a long time ago! You can also see one of our groundsels covered in
this sweetgum post from 2021.
Links:
USGS Plant ID
LSU AG Center
USDA NCRS
