Today we met Greg Schubert and he talked to us about invasive plant species and how they are trying to control them here. The one we learned about and will be doing a project with is the Verbacina. It is has a pretty yellow flower like a daisy and looks like a bush. It grows very quickly and takes over an area in a few months. The good thing is it can be removed easily because it has a shallow root system so you just yank it out of the ground. A problem that occurs is after you remove it the seeds in the ground begin to grow as soon as there is rain, so you have to remove it before it seeds or during and then continue to weed the area for regrowth. You also have to plant another plant to take over the area. We planted a native grass - about 400 plants! It was great. Everyone was pulling up plants, piling them up, then planting the new grass plant. We could really see a big difference in the area!
photo credit: Dani Carter
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