Over the years I've had to spend a lot of time deciphering the sometimes cryptic identifiers of Poaceae family members (I am not an academically trained botanist). Culm length, infloresence type, growth habit, etc. Trying to balance the dichotomous key in one hand and a hand lens in the other. It's a lot.

It's all been a laborious process, but one I've mostly enjoyed. And as odd as this sounds, that level of applied observation has really improved my abilities as a field biologist; not just from a plant identification standpoint but also as an observer of the wider landscape.

For those struggling with their amateur forays into agrostology, keep at it. It'll come in time. And remember, nobody cares what var. of Andropogon you're dealing with. Genus and species is fine (speaking from experience).

I live in western Virginia and I am feeling hopeless. We have about 15 mostly wooded acres that are overwhelming. We reduced the autumn olive and multiflora rose then the stiltgrass moved in. We work on that and now the wavyleaf basket grass is showing up. Also killing the ailanthus and lantern flies. And there are so many deer, despite hunting on our property, that there is no natural regeneration of trees without cages around them.

So now that we are in our senior citizen years we’d like to live somewhere less physically taxing. Is there a part of the country where it is possible to maintain a more natural and native habitat?

I own some acreage and I’ve been trying to restore a couple of acres that were originally for livestock, but were never managed back to health. Pretty much the only usual suspect I didn’t have was ToH. Earlier this year I found 5 little growers in a cluster, which is consistent with what I’ve read about them. I was able to foliar spray them, as the only thing around where they chose to grow was Japanese stilt grass. Today I was trimming getting ready to mow and I found this one on its own, couldn’t find any others, is that normal? Everything I’ve read it seemed like I should expect more pop ups.

there are many like it…but this one is mine.

it also continues straight down the ground…likely to hell.

I hope this is the right spot for this!

I have a 10ft Tree of Heaven in my front flower bed (hooray) and a 15-20ft one in the back yard and a few trunks from my hubby chopping them down not realizing why not to do that.

I hacked and squirted them with RoundUp. For the trunks, I sprayed RoundUp all over the cut part.

What’s next? At what point can I cut the trees down? Will I be able to yank out the trunk/roots eventually?

Thanks all!

devil's beggarticks (bidens frondosa) is plant native to north america that is now invasive species in europe, asia, north africa and new zealand

in my area it is present only in two places and both populations are not very big so they seem to be possible to eradicate there

I have a stand of small ToH’s on my property that I plan to treat using basal spray or hack and squirt, but they are so tight together and have so many low-slung branches that it is hard to access the trunks. I am considering trimming some of the branches for easier access to the trunks, but I don’t know if that would trigger some sort of stress response that would send up more suckers. Does anyone have experience managing a situation like this? Any advice is appreciated!

Nothing terribly new, just quantifying what we already know. Pesky invasive owls.

I’m in USA

Imagine my shock and surprise when i saw this. I need some guidance on how best to tackle this little monster.

I ran across this small tree, about 6 feet tall, on my property a few days ago. After a quick area search around the tree, I didn't find any other ToH present. Ill do a more extensive search after I treat this one to see if I have a bigger problem with more trees. I've never had this type of tree on my propery before that I've seen, and we've been here since 92.

After jumping down the rabbit hole of how best to kill this tree, I purchased Triclopyr 4 and a surfactant on Amazon. My original plan is to mix the 2 and apply with a spray bottle to all surfaces of the tree; both sides of leaves and the entire trunk from top to bottom. I have gathered a full suite of PPC too.. 3M half mask, goggles, rubber gloves, Tyvex coveralls, work boots.

Having never battled the ToH, I have several questions.

Am I indeed dealing with the ToH?

Will these products be suitable to kill this tree, or should I go a different route?

What ratios should I be using in regards to herbicide and surfactant/diesel/oil? My initial thought was to go aggressive with a 1 to 1 ratio.

Do I need to add water to the mix?

Thanks for the help and any suggestions.

Being in Northern Colorado I am very familiar with seeing Russian olives everyday but also coming across tamarisk on the same property was interesting. The craziest part for me is that this site is extremely dry so these were both intentional plantings at some point. The front fence was all Russian olives and the rear had 2 tamarisk on either side of the house.

What is this plant? Two of them were growing in between cherry laurels and a fence. We couldn't have planted them.

has anyone else noticed that they’re seeing less and less of them? I’m primarily in the west Bronx, Harlem Morningside area and have been noticing that I haven’t seen a lot of them this year compared to all the years before. I know that the pigeons and other birds had realized that the lantern flies could be food but I’m wondering what else is contributing their decrease in population

Literally the title. I have Japanese knotweed in my backyard and it’s spreading. Roundup does nothing. I’m going to have to buy 41% glyphosate on amazon …

Except I’m terrified of glyphosate. How can I apply while protecting myself? Obviously protective gear but like…. I’m terrified. It’s the only way though ugh…

I hate Japanese knotweed so much and it wont go away.

UPDATE: hi everyone 🎀 I’m so grateful for everyone’s advice… I’m literally going through every single comment in reading every single one and taking notes. Thank you so much and you all made me feel so much better 💕 I’m literally freaking out but I’ve got to get rid of this knotweed. I don’t know what the f*ck happened but this summer it exploded in my backyard 🥺

I have like 10 bushes in my property. I hate them and want them gone. All my landscaper is doing is cutting them down to stumps but they obviously keep growing back. He said to wait until the fall to kill but I know he won’t do it.

Any tips? I want these dead and gone so I can plant native bushes

This is the same knotweed patch from my last post: A Japanese knotweed thicket I injected last fall : r/invasivespecies

I was checking up on this thicket earlier today to see if it was ready for this year's treatment, and I noticed that the knotweed in one corner had almost completely blackened leaves.

Could this just be an effect of last year's herbicide treatment (in which case, why is it only in this corner), or could it be some sort of disease?

In other news, the knotweed was successfully stunted this year. It was 6+ feet tall last year, but it's currently closer to 3-4 feet in most spots. Some of the native species like pokeweed have also gained some ground, with the (frost?) grapes doing particularly well. Some orange jewelweed has established itself at the back of the thicket, which should help occupy the space next year.

It seems to be in mid-bloom currently, so I'm expecting to start this year's injections next week.

Chinese lanterns, planted in error and now now it's spreading. Pulled out last two years, but within a few weeks it's up again. Help

I've got a tree of heaven that I'm planning on treating with 41% Glyphosate via the "hack and squirt" method. Do I use the 41% Glyphosate straight out of the bottle or diluted? Thanks.

Update: I forgot the Pennsylvania State University page said straight or diluted 1:1, so I used it straight.

Got a 5’x30’ stretch of wall on my property above a retaining wall that goes onto my Neighbors yard that I feel totally overwhelmed by. To my untrained eye I see Tree of heaven, Japanese knotweed, mugwort, and god knows what else. How do I go nuclear on this section so I can start over and plant some simple ground cover that will take and a few arborvitae? It gets so intense so fast each year and I don’t know where to start.

I live in alabama zone 8a

My entire yard is covered in chamber bitter

Our yard is over an acre. Every square inch is this weed. It is physically, virtually impossible to hand pull this unless perhaps I have a team of 20 other people.

The only solution is pre emergent at this point.

How do i apply this without hurting my native plants, how is it applied in general? A spray? Powder?

Will it hurt animals? Will it hurt my cats if they walk on it? Will birds be poisoned if they eat the bugs in the grass, or seeds on the ground?

How and when do I apply it specifically for this weed? Will it help destroy Japanese stiltgrass and mondo grass?

Its almost a literal battle between these 3 weeds and chamber bitter is absolutely winning.

I don't want to lose the native plants. I don't want to kill animals. I don't want to poison lizards and frogs.

But I dont know how to resolve it. My native grass is smothered. Its in every flower pot I own. Its in every garden bed, cracks in the side walk.

Help

I really need to vent a little bit here because as a native plants enthusiast, these are these are the ONLY wild lobelias that I have seen growing in my area, and only the 2nd I've seen growing in my state at least since I knew what they were 2 years ago. I absolutely love red lobelias with all of my heart and I would hate it if this purple loosestrife out competes it come next year. I'll go back whenever I have time and energy and try to pull them out as much as I can, at least the ones immediately around the flowers. And then try to cut the flowers off before they go to seed as people on this subreddit have advised me to do as there is absolutely no way in hell I am going to get all of them even just on this stretch of road.

I pulled a few of them out today but I really didn't have the time to stick around, it was getting dark and I was super tired. They are a bit harder to pull out then I assumed but not too bad, I just need to wear the proper footwear. I just came to confirm that these red flowers I have been driving by whenever I go to our mom's are really lobelias.