Garlic Mustard Alert and Work Day

A large and thriving infestation of the dreaded Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata) has been found at Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield. This aggressive and widely adaptable biennial herb has been known to be a seriously invasive pest throughout much of the eastern US north of here. This is the first confirmed location in Georgia that I know of. Detailed information about this highly invasive plant can be found at:

http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/alpe1.htm
http://tncweeds.ucdavis.edu/esadocs/documnts/allipet.html

Representatives from GA-EPPC met with Park Service personnel and have offered assistance in tackling this pest. We have scheduled a workday for Saturday, June 4 from 9:30 to 12:30. The plants are finishing flowering and beginning to set seed now - we can pull or cut and bag the stalks to prevent further spread of seed (if we wait much longer, we will only contribute to seed spread). This effort can go a long way toward reducing the population now, and we hope to continue to aid this effort in the future by helping with follow-up efforts.

This is a rare opportunity to participate in "Early Detection and Rapid Response" for an invasive plant. As most of you who've battled Chinese privet, Japanese honeysuckle, etc. have learned, we have a monstrous task ahead of us to ever get these invasives under control. In the case of garlic mustard, we may have a chance to nip it in the bud, so to speak - and we need to act now. Kennesaw Mountain is extremely rich in botanical and wildlife treasures and I'm sure is a place that many of you visit for that reason. Garlic mustard is a serious threat to these resources!

Even if you cannot participate in this event, please familiarize yourself with this plant - especially if you live in the vicinity of Kennesaw. This may be an isolated infestation - but more likely the plant is present elsewhere and has not been recognized. Garlic mustard appears to prefer soils that are more basic than those most commonly found in Georgia - but we do have many areas where these soils occur (especially in the northwest part of the state and to some extent in the Blue Ridge; in the piedmont, these are mostly around the major rock outcrops and along many streams in the Chattahoochee drainage).

Directions to Kennesaw Mountain can be found at http://www.nps.gov/kemo/pphtml/planyourvisit.html

We will meet at the Visitors Center parking lot and take the shuttles up the mountain beginning at 9:30. If the parking lot is full, the Park Service has told us you may park along the drive to the superintendent's offices.

Come prepared to encounter poison ivy, briers, insects, and sun. Wear sturdy shoes since we'll be working on steep slopes. If you can, bring work gloves and hand pruners.

If you plan to come or want more information, please contact me at cpgray@co.dekalb.ga.us or 404-501-9452

Thanks to Chris Evans, GA-EPPC member (who worked on this plant during his masters thesis in Iowa) who spotted this problem while birding!


				The Bugwood Network and Forestry Images Image Archive and Database Systems The University of Georgia - Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources and College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences - Dept. of Entomology Last updated on Thursday, May 26, 2005 at 11:31 AM Questions and/or comments to the