Friday, February 17, 2012

Cynanchum (swallow-wort)


I took the green pictures of swallow-wort at the Federal Farm on July 24, 2011.


I took the the brown pictures of the swallow-wort there today, February 17, 2012.
The one on the left is on the left side of the center vertical (E-W) trail in the map below.
The one on the right is near the center of the pins at the bottom of the map.


The light blue push-pins show where I sighted swallow-wort vines today. North is at the left of the map.

I don't know at this point whether it's Cynanchum rossicum (pale swallow-wort) or Cynanchum louiseae (black swallow-wort) because I didn't see the flowers. If anyone can tell from the pictures, let me know. Though I don't know if it really matters.

Most of the vines that I noticed were climbing other exotics, not surprisingly, since they comprise the majority of easily-climbable vegetation in the area. Most were climbing bush honeysuckle, followed by buckthorn, multiflora rose, privet, grape vines, and autumn olive (in very rough order of infestation.) A much smaller, but still subtatntial number of vines were climbing native plants, primarily the gray- and red-stemmed dogwoods, but also a couple of small pine trees. There was also an area of bramble (where the group of pins are at the bottom of the map) that has a very dense infestation, as shown in the photograph on the right, just above the map.

Most were only up 4 or 5 feet into the vegetation, but a few were as high as 8 or 10 feet. They may have been up higher before "winter" set in.


Swallow-wort amongst Cornus sericea.

Swallow-wort climbing Rosa multiflora.


Climbing a pine tree,
near one of the rightmost (southern) pushpins in the map above.


Near the picture above,
one of southern pushpins.

At an overlook to Gully Rd. pond,
one of the bottom (western) group of pushpins.