Bruce Maxwell
"Weed Ecology"

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Misconceptions about Weeds
1. Weeds are special troublesome plants.
-Only 10,000 species are recognized as weeds out of 260,000 species.
2. All alien plants that are introduced become weeds.
-Immigrant weed species can fail.
3. Weeds are taking over our wilderness areas.
-Experiment on Spotted Knapweed in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness.
a. out of 30 tested campsites in the wilderness, only six had Spotted Knapweed.
4.  Leafy Spurge causes reduction in forage available for livestock.
a. LS does take over forage for awhile but the herbage and grasses come back strong.
5.  Leafy Spurge causes a reduction in native plant species diversity.
a. Objective is to determine if grazing and tordon helps prevent LS.
b. Tested four different areas, unsprayed-ungrazed, unsprayed-grazed, sprayed-ungrazed, and sprayed-grazed.
c. The results were in the first three years the LS was controlled and the grass biomass increased but by the fourth year Leafy Spurge took over and no grassy forbs returned.
d. The conclusion is that unsprayed-ungrazed was the best bet on how to control LS.

 Bruce Maxwell-Professor at MSU
 Photo taken by A.J. Bussan.


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LINKS
Bruce Maxwell's site
Bruce Maxwell's second site
Weed Science Society of America
General Weed and Herbicide Information
North Central Weed Science Society
Botanical Glossaries
Plant Pathology Internet Guide Book
Alberta Agriculture
FAO Pesticide Management Home Page
Herbicide Resistant Weeds
 
 
Reported by: Krista Sacry, Cyrene Janacaro, & Keely Sacry
Photo taken by: Todd Breitenfeldt


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