Toad Rush v New Zealand Pigmyweed
24th July 2008, ThursdayToad Rush is one of the small rushes at Castle Water and grows on the bare muddy margins. This is just the habitat that the alien New Zealand Pigmyweed likes and you can see from the photo that the rush (centre) is about to engulfed. The pigmyweed is widespread in the RX area, click here for previous postings. So, which will win?
From experience at other sites we think that the pigmyweed will win, BUT help is at hand in the form of herbicide, carefully applied to the clumps of the pigmyweed. We use a blue dye to track where it has been applied. Of course, the Toad Rush will also be killed, but it will reduce the potential of the pigmyweed and create more bare ground for new Toad Rush plants. Areas sprayed last year have very little pigmyweed this year, but it will be an annual battle to ensure that the alien does not dominate large areas of our wetlands…
