Rambling Thoughts about Purple Loosestrife

Aug 26 14:42 UTC 1993

There's an article in a local newspaper by a West Bloomfield 
official recanting the homage previous township officials paid 
Purple Loosestrife when they named it West Bloomfield's official 
flower.  The reason the author gave for Purple Loosestrife's fall 
from favor is that it's a European import that's spread unchecked 
in the absence of natural enemies, and is crowding out our native 
plants and ruining our wetlands.  But I wonder...

Purple Loosestrife, which has indeed come to dominate yards and 
roadsides here in West Bloomfield, is one of the plants house-
hunter manuals often cite as sufficient reason not to buy a house 
if you find it growing on the property.  It's not that there's 
anything noxious about the plant itself, which is lovely in large 
masses and which attracts all kinds of interesting insects (I 
caught my first Abbot's Sphinx in a stand of purple loosestrife).  
The problem is that Purple Loosestrife likes to have its feet wet, 
as the gardeners say.  In fact, you often see it growing together 
with cattail.  Any house with Purple Loosestrife right there on the 
property is likely to be sitting in or near a patch of wet ground, 
with all the attendant problems of waterlogged living.  

Back when Purple Loosestrife was still politically correct we 
planted a couple of plants in our back yard.  Although they look a 
bit anemic when the weather is dry, and they haven't tried to 
spread, they've survived for four years now and obviously find our 
property habitable.  This is not surprising: our basement was 
constantly flooded after we moved in until we paid a small fortune 
to have it sealed up.  (I believe our house is actually seaworthy 
now.)  And we're located on a *hill*, if you could call it that.  

So, do you have lots of Purple Loosestrife where you live?  Have 
you heard any talk about exterminating it to make room for native 
plants to come back?

response 2 of 20:

Aug 26 23:10 UTC 1993

The north side of Plymouth Road just north of downtown is covered with
loosestrife juxtaposed with cattails.

Is West Bloomfield a sprawling suburb?  Purple Loosestrife its official
flower?  How appropriate!

response 4 of 20:

Aug 27 15:12 UTC 1993

Re #1, thanks, rcurl.  I called the number and they offered to
send some literature on the subject.  I'll enter any shareworthy
stuff here.

Re #2, West Bloomfield does sort of sprawl, but what I find so
funny about Purple Loosestrife being named the offical flower is
that a burb so notoriously conscious of property values should
have as an official flower something that renders residential
property undesireable.

response 6 of 20:

Aug 28 04:32 UTC 1993

Loosestrife doesn't *prevent* developers from destroying wetlands. They just
just have to do more to drain and fill. The loosestrife isn't a barrier,
it is just an indicator of wet conditions. I recall that there are some
insects that feed on loosestrife, but that they were not imported with
the plant. Well, I better wait for md to post the "true facts".

response 8 of 20:

Sep 1 17:51 UTC 1993

The Nature Conservancy package came yesterday.  Lots of recent
clippings, including Canadian publications.  This is a major
problem in Canada, too.  Some of the Articles have a doomsday
tone:  "Purple Loosestrife may eventually replace wetland ecosystems
all over the world with its beautiful but deadly monoculture."
"Beautiful but deadly" is a recurring theme.

It turns out there are three European beetles that feed exclusively
on Purple Loosestrife.  They've already been thoroughly tested (as
thoroughly as anything in nature can be tested) and released in
several controlled programs around the country.  There's also a
native moth, the Spotted Wood Nymph, whose larva seems to have a
taste for Purple Loosestrife.  Researchers are working with it, too.

While biological "cures" like these are by far the most effective
long-term solutions, various agencies have been using herbicides
in particularly desperate cases.  There was one story from a Canadian
publication that described a familiar old wetland suddenly covered
with acres of purple blossoms as far as the eye can see, and
absolutely nothing else; the worst thing about the scene was the
dead silence: no birds, no beavers or muskrats, no bugs, nothing.
Sad.

response 10 of 20:

Sep 2 13:14 UTC 1993

It crowds out everything and creates a dense canopy under which
nothing grows.  All the bugs' foodplants get choked out.  All of
everything gets choked out.  The result is a "monoculture" that's
only good for Purple Loosestrife and whatever is above it on
the food chain.  Since there's nothing above it on the food chain
in most areas, that leaves just Purple Loosestrife.

Twenty acres of purple blossoms will still attract an impressive
number of bugs from elsewhere to feed at the blossoms.  But my
Abbott's Sphinx, for example, is still going to have to go and
find it's own foodplant to lay eggs on, since it's larval foodplants
that are important for moths, butterflies and many other kinds
of insects as well.

response 12 of 20:

Sep 2 16:55 UTC 1993

Sounds like whats-his-name could do a horror film titled "Purple Loosestrife".
People being overwhelmed and smothered by the creeping monster from the
swamp - and all that.

response 14 of 20:

Sep 3 03:00 UTC 1993

Is The Nature Conservancy looking for any assistance in uprooting
PL? 

response 16 of 20:

Sep 17 14:35 UTC 1993

I received a catalog from White Flower Farm in Litchfield, Connecticut,
yesterday that offers two varieties of Purple Loosestrife.  In the
text describibg the plants there's a note:  "A native speicies, Lythrum
salicaria, is widely established in wetlands in many northern states,
sometimes proliferating to the point where it chokes out less aggressive
native species.  For this reason, some states have embarked on eradication
programs and prohibit the sale of Lythrums.  We entirely respect these
efforts but are persuaded that the vast populations of wild plants already
in place will almost certainly overwhelm any local efforts aimed at control.
These circumstances are not, in our view, occasion for excluding Lythrum
from all gardens, though it seems prudent to encourage prompt deadheading.
The varieties we offer are self-sterile hybrids selected in Canada for
vigor and rich color.  They can and will interbreed with local populations
if not deadheaded."

response 18 of 20:

Jul 5 04:52 UTC 1996

Does anyone know whether anything is currently being done in Michigan to
eradicate PL?  I heard a talk about a year & a half ago by someone at the
Mich. Botanical Club (sorry, can't recall his name) who said Ontario has some
kind of experimental burning program to get rid of the stuff.  

response 20 of 20:

Jul 20 14:07 UTC 1999

A front page story in a local paper recently revealed
plans by West Bloomfield Township ecologists to
introduce a beetle species into the purple loosestrife
stands in the township.  The beetle is an imported
one that eats purple loosestrife.  We'll see.