I had forgotten that last spring I kept getting startled by things jumping out at me while I was weeding ... it took me forever to figure out that they weren't bugs, it was some sort of booby trapped seed pod from a weed that grows all over our yard. The slightest touch and SPROING - little spiral seed thingees shoot all over the place, as far as five or ten feet away. A few minutes of Internet searching turned up a likely culprit: Yellow Wood Sorrel.
photo credit: http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/38376/index.htmlThose cucumber-looking things are the (unexploded) seed pods, I think. Anyway, I found out today that the stuff is so sensitive that even spraying it with Round Up sends seeds flying every which way, so I think there's going to be a lot more spraying in my future if I want to eradicate it. And oh, yes - I WILL eradicate it. Just ask the ivy ...
2 comments:
Good luck with the sorrel. We have had good luck prevent the growth of seeds by distributing corn meal gluten over the yard. Our local plant-mart has 50-lb bags of the stuff. We spread it over the yard and it helps to prevent the seeds from germinating and growing.
Good luck.
I noticed on your web page for the photo credit that sorrel was toxic. Going to the more authoritative http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/
consumer/poison/poison.htm, it appears that you have to eat a bunch, like grazing cattle. This would be difficult for little ones considering the thorns.
I also noticed that the latin name for our local holly is "Ilex vomitoria". Gee, guess what happens when you it eat?
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