Re: Loosestrife alternatives and facts

**G*@aol.com**

A partial list of ornamental alternatives to purple loosestrife is included 
in the article "Integrated management of purple loosestrife", The IPM 
Practitioner, October 2002.

Perennials with "bright flowers similar to purple loosestrife"

blazing star or gay feather, Liatris spp.
Delphinium spp
false spirea, Astilbe arendsii
foxglove, Digitalis purpurea
lupine, Lupinus spp
cardinal flower, Lobelia cardinalis
obedient plant, Physostegia virginiana
Salvia superba
Siberian iris
spike speedwell, Veronica spicata

"Native plants should be chosen when possible. If natives escape from your 
garden, there are potentially fewer ecological impacts. Contact your local 
nursery or garden center for more information."  Preferably one that doesn't 
sell it?

BIRC emphasizes prevention, notes that sales of cultivars should be 
restricted. Notes that most noxious weeds are pioneer species and that 
maintaining a dense ground cover of desirable plants with a closed canopy 
will usually help prevent their establishment.

A few more facts: there are at least 28 cultivars, sterile cultivars outcross 
with wild populations and produce long-lasting viable seed, a single plant 
can produce 2.7 million seeds per year, each seed about the size of a grain 
of sand, seed establishes quickly in disturbed areas, tolerates a wide range 
of soils including sand, clay, gravel and crushed rock, it has spread to all 
states in the US and all provinces of Canada except the Yukon and Northwest 
Territory, probably aided by fertilizer runoff from surrounding farmlands. 
Purple loosestrife forms dense monocultures, chokes off wildlife habitat, 
impedes water flow in drainage and irrigation ditches, its rapid leaf 
decomposition rates can alter nutrient cycling, "is a less efficient 
biofilter than cattails and other native vegetation it replaces. Nutrients 
released from decomposing leaves can cause overgrowth and oxygen depletion in 
downstream water bodies."

Gypsy moths feed on it, but apparently not enough! No single method of 
control is effective, hence emphasis on IPM, including prevention, biological 
control, hand removal, cutting, flooding, smothering and planting competitive 
vegetation. And long-term commitment.

Is this enough?

Sally

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