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Garlic Mustard, Invasive Plant Management
Posted June 01, 2021
Events, Pond & Park Ecology, Projects

Several patches of garlic mustard, an alien invasive plant, have become established at Buckingham Pond. Fortunately, it’s fairly easy to bring garlic mustard under control by pulling the plants up and removing them before they release seeds. This is a great way to get outdoors and improve our environment while still keeping your social distance.

Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) plants choke out native plants in the understory by controlling light, water, and nutrient resources.

First-year plants produce a rosette of dark green, kidney-shaped leaves with scalloped edges.

One garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) plant can produce more than 7,000 seeds before dying. The plants smother spring wildflowers and produce toxins to prevent the growth of native plants.

Narrow seed pods appear after flowering and split open in mid-summer to release small black seeds.

RIGHT NOW WE’RE IN A RACE AGAINST TIME TO REMOVE PLANTS BEFORE THEY SHED SEEDS

If you’d like to help, please get in touch with Conservancy board member Mark Schlessman at [email protected], who will be happy to get you started. Mark will train you how to remove the plants on the following dates:

  • Thursday June 3 @ 5:30 pm
  • Sunday June 6 @ 10:00 am

Volunteers should wear shoes, long pants, a long sleeved shirt; please bring a pair of hardy scissors, and gloves if you want gloves. Mark will provide bring lawn & leaf bags.

To learn more about garlic mustard, go to:

New York Invasive Species Information
https://nyis.info/species/garlic-mustard/

The Nature Conservancy
https://www.nature.org/en-us/about-us/where-we-work/united-states/indiana/stories-in-indiana/garlic-mustard/