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Re: Goldenrod

The interesting thing is that the prairies had mixed grasses and forbes.
How did the mixture develop? Has anybody read some good papers or studies
on the subject, which we all might read and discuss? Steve, send your
citations to the list, please.

It would seem unlikely that all the species arrived at the same time,
doesn't it? So there must have been some mechanism for continued
colonization that created the present mixes. The question is: does that
mechanism work within a human lifetime? Maybe the mechanism is irratic
burning plus irratic herbivory. Throw out the schedules. Bring in the
buffalo. And use BIG spaces.

Debby

---------------

>The approach I've started taking on some small restorations in Nebraska is
>to go ahead and let the plants sort themselves out.  We have a goldenrod
>that is very prevalent in one field and I'm not concerned about trying to
>control it, partly because I am not convinced that any type of burning or
>mowing treatment will be effective.  When these restorations were very
>young I did a lot of mowing because I was worried about ragweed, fleabane,
>primrose and any other plant that looked like it would dominate the stand,
>preventing the establishment of the plant community that I thought
>"should" be there.  I tried mowing with the shredder held high to prevent
>seed production, opening up the canopy, mowing low, etc. Looking back on
>all the work, I really doubt that what I did had much of an effect.
>Especially with young stands, species compositions can change dramatically
>through time, and I am more content now to just stand back and watch
>things proceed.
>
>Another way of looking at this question could be the following:
>down here in the Flint Hills there is LOTS of tallgrass prairie, and as
>you drive through it and look around, you can notice that there are some
>large areas within any given pasture where a particular species is very
>prevalent.  In the fall you can see patches of goldenrod that I would
>guess are at least half an acre in size.  It's possible that these are
>multiple stems of a single plant or several clones of the same plant.  My
>point is, half acre patches of goldenrod in pastures of tallgrass prairie
>that are hundreds of acres in size does not strike me as unusual because
>I would assume that this is a completely normal way that plant communities
>in a prairie expresses themselves. But a half acre patch of goldenrod in a
>three acre restoration or remnant can cause alarm.  However, it
>seems to me that the plant community in the small restoration or remnant
>is expressing itself in the same manner as the plant communty in the huge
>Flint Hills pasture, only the context is different.
>
>If you have a specific objective that you want to acheive for your
>restorations and decide it is neccesary to control the goldenrod, I can
>share with you what I've learned from Clenton Owensby of the Range
>Science Department here at Kansas State.  Of primary importance in
>controlling perennial plants is the application of the control treatment
>(herbivory, mowing, fire, herbicide) at the low point of the plants
>carbohydrate (CHO) reserve cycle. When a perennial resumes growth in the
>spring, it uses stored CHO to fuel that growth until enough leaf area is
>present for photosynthesis to provide the CHO for maintenance, growth,
>reproduction and finally storage.  Using this stored CHO draws down the
>stored reserves.  Replenishment of stored reserves occurs later in the
>season via excess photosynthetic CHO after all maintenence, growth and
>reproductive needs have been fulfilled. If you eliminate the
>leaf area (eliminate the photosynthetic source of CHO), the plant will
>need to again utilize stored CHO to regenerate leaf area.  If this
>occurs at the low point of the CHO reserve cycle, there's a good
>chance that the plant does not have enough CHO in storage to resume growth
>or vigorous growth.  Do this at the same time for successive years and you
>will probably acheive good control of the target plant, plus any other
>plant that has a similar CHO reserve cycle.  Conduct the control at any
>other time of the CHO reserve cycle and you probably won't affect the
>target species at all.  You may even help it because you will unknowingly
>be controlling a non-target species that has a CHO reserve cycle that
>coincides with your control period, thus reducing the competitive ability
>of that plant which could in turn improve the competitive ability of your
>target plant.  If any of you have trouble with sumac, we do in Nebraska
>and Kansas, this answers the question of why all the spring burning (a
>classic method for controlling woody vegetation) doesn't affect sumac.
>The low point of sumac's CHO reserve cycle in Kansas Flint Hills is early
>June, long after the spring burns.  The question you're probably asking
>now is "when is the low point point of goldenrods CHO reserve cycle in my
>part of the country?".  I don't know, and I don't know if anybody would
>know.  That's why I would advocate just sitting back, watching, and
>letting the plants sort themselves out.  You won't be wasting time and
>money on futile control efforts, you will still learn a lot about plant
>ecology and successional patterns, and you may learn to appreciate
>prairies that demand on deviating from our notions of what is
>appropriate, normal or representative.
>
>I would advise against mowing tops (to prevent seed production) as
>a method of controlling perennials because I think it is a waste of time
>and money.  My education and experience (both in mowing tops and in trying
>to seed into established stands) lead me to believe that seed production
>and seedling germination contribute very little to alterations of species
>composition or the spread of any particular perennial.  I am convinced
>that perennial reproduction and spreading in a prairie is primarily
>asexual - stolons, rhizomes, tillering - there is simply little
>opportunity for seedlings to succeed in such a competitive environment.
>For a contrasting and interesting opinion on the ability of perennial
>prairie plants to germinate and spread in established stands, you can
>check out Steve Packard's contributions in Restoration and Management
>Notes and the Tallgrass Prairie and Savanah Restoration Handbook where he
>discusses his experiences with what he calls "successional restoration".
>If you need specific citations let me know.
>
>Steve
>
>
>
>
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