Chinook Jr. High Exploratory Agriculture Students Inform us on Noxious Weeds
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Robin Allen, a CHS Educator has assigned each of her Junior high students in Exploratory Agriculture a noxious weed to research. Their job is to be able to recognize noxious weeds as well as educate others on how to eradicate and stop the spread of the weed. There are a total of 36 weeds we will learn about through this project and the Blaine County Journal will Spotlight 1 or 2 each week.
Common Buckthorn
By Jacob Metcalf:
The life cycle of a common buckthorn is a perennial which means it lives more than one year.
The leaves have rounded teeth sometimes they are nearly smooth, they have a dark green above a lighter green or yellowish green below.
The stems are tipped with a short sharp thorn. This thorn is often present in the fork of 2 branches.
The flowers are small with 4 sepals and 4 petals the flowers and petals are greenish yellowish and short stalked.
The plant produces 5-6 minimum of berries.The seed is a half an inch long and black and shaped like a thorn.
How to get rid of common buckthorn.
To get rid of buckthorn just simply spray roundup on it and it will get rid of it.
To prevent common buckthorn cut the stem at the soil then cover the stump to prevent re-sprouting.
You tend to find it in Havre, Great Falls, Kalispell, Helena, Billings, Bozeman, Missoula, Sidney, and Miles City.
The spread of the common buckthorn.
The common buckthorn spreads by the berries falling off the tree to the ground and they turn into seed later and reproduce into another tree.
Common Tansy
By Aislinn Handy:
The Common Tansy is a well-know noxious weed. You can find the Common Tansy in road ditches, roadways, fields, waste areas, and especially in wetter areas all over Montana.
The common Tansy is a perennial weed. You can get rid of this by using herbicides, mowing, hand-pulling (make sure you wear gloves), grazing, and digging. This weed is commonly spread by animals and farm equipment.
By cleaning your equipment or machines you can easily prevent this from spreading. You can easily identify this weed. They are usually in clusters of small, flat-topped, yellow flowers with a button-like appearance when they flower. They can reach from 1.5 to 6 feet tall. Their stems are a reddish-purple colors and normally are stout. Their leaves are alternately arranged on branches, they are narrow, toothed parts. The leaves also have a fern-like appearance.
The seeds spread quickly and are light-weight. They do remain on flower heads for a long time which limits long-distance wind dispersal. They produce eight or more flower heads per stem and between 20 to 200 flower heads per plant.
Common Tansy can commonly be confused with tansy ragwort. Tansy ragwort though has a ray of flowers which help distinguish them.
