Ignorance on ragwort is rife. I would not be able to blog on this on nearly a daily basis if it were not so. It helps relieve my frustration with the nonsense and of course serves to debunk the nonsense to a wide audience.
This entry is about yet another important wildlife site being damaged.
Little Wormwood Scrubs is a piece of parkland and wilder habitat in the middle of London. It is managed by Kensington and Chelsea Council. They have a nice management plan that seems very good. It is full of excellent stuff for improving biodiversity, new hedges, wildflower meadows, everything you would expect. Then you come across this little piece.
INVASIVE PLANT CONTROL
Japanese knotweed is an invasive exotic tall herb which is present in the north
eastern corner of the site. It is recommended that this plant be eradicated before it spreads further in accordance with DEFRA advice.
Ragwort should be pulled before it sets seed and removed from site, bagged and
sent to landfill. Ragwort removal should be carried out in accordance with DEFRA
advice. Ragwort is the larval food for the Cinnebar(sic) moth, therefore allowing to grow but not set seed ensures this food source is maintained.
The terms "invasive weed" and "invasive plant" are used by ecologists to describe plants that a foreign to a country's ecology and that cause problems by spreading and replacing native vegetation. This certainly applies to Japanese Knotweed. It is a nasty pernicious invader.
Ragwort is a native plant. It has a valuable ecological role, not just for the Cinnabar Moth. It is the food of a large number of invertebrates and a nectar source for even more of them.
There is also a real piece of baffling ignorance here.
Ragwort is the larval food for the Cinnebar(sic) moth, therefore allowing to grow but not set seed ensures this food source is maintained.
You cannot maintain the plant if you do not allow it ever to set seed. It will die out! Also what about all the other invertebrates that eat it.
It may be yet another example of ignorance where council officers don't know their botany and think that ragwort is a problem invader. There is no problem with ragwort here even with the poor Defra guidelines. There are no grazing animals nor is there hay being made. There are no references in the document to this and you would not expect it in central London. ( It is only in hay that ragwort is a problem.)
There is of course the other problem. Every time this sort of misinformation is repeated more people are likely to believe it and it becomes even more prevalent.
This entry is about yet another important wildlife site being damaged.
Little Wormwood Scrubs is a piece of parkland and wilder habitat in the middle of London. It is managed by Kensington and Chelsea Council. They have a nice management plan that seems very good. It is full of excellent stuff for improving biodiversity, new hedges, wildflower meadows, everything you would expect. Then you come across this little piece.
INVASIVE PLANT CONTROL
Japanese knotweed is an invasive exotic tall herb which is present in the north
eastern corner of the site. It is recommended that this plant be eradicated before it spreads further in accordance with DEFRA advice.
Ragwort should be pulled before it sets seed and removed from site, bagged and
sent to landfill. Ragwort removal should be carried out in accordance with DEFRA
advice. Ragwort is the larval food for the Cinnebar(sic) moth, therefore allowing to grow but not set seed ensures this food source is maintained.
The terms "invasive weed" and "invasive plant" are used by ecologists to describe plants that a foreign to a country's ecology and that cause problems by spreading and replacing native vegetation. This certainly applies to Japanese Knotweed. It is a nasty pernicious invader.
Ragwort is a native plant. It has a valuable ecological role, not just for the Cinnabar Moth. It is the food of a large number of invertebrates and a nectar source for even more of them.
There is also a real piece of baffling ignorance here.
Ragwort is the larval food for the Cinnebar(sic) moth, therefore allowing to grow but not set seed ensures this food source is maintained.
You cannot maintain the plant if you do not allow it ever to set seed. It will die out! Also what about all the other invertebrates that eat it.
It may be yet another example of ignorance where council officers don't know their botany and think that ragwort is a problem invader. There is no problem with ragwort here even with the poor Defra guidelines. There are no grazing animals nor is there hay being made. There are no references in the document to this and you would not expect it in central London. ( It is only in hay that ragwort is a problem.)
There is of course the other problem. Every time this sort of misinformation is repeated more people are likely to believe it and it becomes even more prevalent.
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