Native but Nefarious.
Today when the trail is green on green on green this stand of pretty grasses caught my eye. The pale, narrowly pyramidal flower clusters gracefully ascending from long slender stems shone in the sunlight like illuminated way markers. Lovely.
"The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself."
Henry Miller
Then I dug into my resources and discover that this lithe, decorative grass I so admired is not so lovely after all. Reed canarygrass - or RCG as it’s unaffectionately called by its haters - is perhaps the single most destructive, invasive wetland species in Minnesota.
One of RCG’s field identifying characteristics is that it’s so, so... everywhere. The stems and leaves collapse into dense sprawling mats that are difficult to traverse by humans and wildlife alike and are essentially useless for nesting habitat. Any area taken over by it becomes a biological desert, with little diversity of insects, birds or other wildlife.
It has a pretty form but when RCG forms a monoculture where there was once diversity, consider it grounds for extermination.
Comments