next message in archive
next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects
Index of Subjects
Hi Fred & All, Aug 29, 2010
It is interesting that, based on the last URL, decline of stands in
Europe is a greater worry than expansion. And some here worry about
expansion. Is there, lurking in the background at both locations, an
underlying human desire for things to remain the same as they were when
first seen ?
Further down on this site (An Information base...recent work) I notice
the comment that the European strain can grow in acid soil that has been
made alkaline by de-icing salt. I am wondering what kind of de-icing salt
can increase soil pH and how.
Also I notice that most (all ?) of the spread along highways may be by
fragmentation, i.e. rhizome cuttings made and transplanted by use of
earth-shaping/moving equipment along highways. It would seem that the
invasive characteristic of this alien strain is, in this case at least, as
man-made as the highways.
I have long admired the stand at Annapolis (on the left as one goes west
out of Annapolis) which, so far as I am aware, is no larger or smaller than
it was when I first saw it about 1946. Some assume this stand to be Acadian
in origin, based on location I suspect. I have a clone of this stand in the
yard (planted 1991) and the base of the culm (with dead sheaths removed) is
green but smooth.
So based on culm base color and surface texture the answer to the
question "is this stand European in origin ?" is yes and no. Perhaps I
misunderstood-- is the reddish culm color of the native just above the soil
level (where I looked) or just above the junction of culm with rhizome ? A
red coloration can be indicative of phosphorus deficiency. Do the two
strains exhibit this color difference when grown at the same site ?
The perimeter of the yard stand BTW is readily contained by mowing 2-3
times a year.
There is, with good reason, renewed interest in alternative energy
sources and I have wondered if the impressive annual growth of Phragmites
could provide fuel for energy on an efficient basis. Do you offhand have
figures for the energy equivalent per unit area of Phragmites ?
It is used in the Netherlands for soil ripening of recently reclaimed
polders (part of the reason for the transplant to a very wet area of the
garden in 1991) and I think many of our soils with compact impermeable
subsoils could become more productive after 20 years under Phragmites.
So growing this grass on marginal farmland for energy might have a secondary
benefit.
Yours truly, Dave Webster, Kentville
----- Original Message -----
From: "Frederick W. Schueler" <bckcdb@istar.ca>
To: "Dusan Soudek" <soudekd@ns.sympatico.ca>; <naturens@chebucto.ns.ca>
Cc: "Catling, Paul" <Paul.Catling@AGR.GC.CA>
Sent: Saturday, August 28, 2010 7:37 AM
Subject: [NatureNS] Re: Common Reed in N.S.?
> On 8/27/2010 5:08 PM, Dusan Soudek wrote (off the list):
>
>> I am curious about your work on the distribution of the native and the
>> Old World clones of /Phragmites /in Nova Scotia and elsewhere.
>> I am finding more and more Common Reed
>> populations in the province, principally along highways.
>> Can you tell the two taxa apart in the field? Or do you need to analyse
>> their DNA?
>
> * I'll take the liberty of replying to the list, since this is the core
> of what we'll be looking for in Nova Scotia. You can see
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phragmites#Invasive_reeds for a very tepid
> account of the status and distribution of native and invasive
> "subspecies" of Phragmites, and
> http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/ben417.html for the database and
> http://www.ou.edu/cas/botany-micro/ben/ben418.html for a compact summary
> of the Canadian distribution. In places it seems that the native form,
> as well as the European "subspecies" invader, is increasing along roads,
> so the observed increase may not be a simple case of alien invasion. The
> two kinds were described as subspecies, but there's no widespread, or
> even documented, interbreeding between them, so they may be good
> biological species.
>
> Basically, if you examine the base of the stems, the native subspecies
> has smooth red or reddish stems, and the invasives have finely ridged
> yellow or greeen stems. Also the invasives are much more likely to be
> more than 3m tall. The stands of the natives are more open, with other
> species of plants often growing admixed, while the invasives form dense
> monospecific stands. Paul Catling has shown that the flower and seed
> parts of the natives are larger than those of the invasives, giving the
> invasive seed head a puffy or plumed look.
>
> Last December we drove through the Saint John Valley and SE coast of new
> Brunswick, and only saw the native form along the roads, and so far have
> seen only native-looking stands in Nova Scotia, so perhaps it would be
> possible to prevent, in the maritime provinces, the kind of takeover
> that has given Phragmites australis ssp. australis its alternative
> English name: "The Grass that Ate New Jersey," and has led to its total
> and complete dominance of so many salt marshes in the Atlantic states.
>
> We'd be very glad to hear of the location of suspected native or
> invasive stands, and as soon as we have better internet connections
> we're going to put up a page for reporting the location of Phragmites
> stands, which we'll communicate to Paul Catling's national registry of
> such stands.
>
> fred schueler.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
> Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
> Thirty Years Later Expedition -
> http://fragileinheritance.org/projects/thirty/thirtyintro.htm
> Longterm ecological monitoring - http://fragileinheritance.org/
> Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
> http://www.doingnaturalhistory.com/
> http://quietcuratorialtime.blogspot.com/
> RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
> on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
> (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Regards,
>> Dusan Soudek
>> /Part of this will be the distribution of native and invasive
>> colonies of the Reed Phragmites, to see how widespread the invasives
>> are, and in the hope of suppressing them before they totally take over
>> salt marshes as they have in such places as New Jersey, and the
>> roadsides as they have in Ontario and southern Quebec.
>>
>> fred schueler.
>> /
>> //
>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No virus found in this incomi