Oaks & Ivy on Chicken Hill_Part 2
04 February 2008 - 15:57, jfred decker said
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Our look at Cape Ivy infestation among the Oaks of Chicken Hill continues from Part 1…
Cape Ivy uses English Ivy (and everything else) as a “ladder,” growing in bundles allowing the English Ivy to survive—for a while at least. Cape Ivy races to its victim’s top and then crowns it all over, killing its host, even large Oaks.
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Here, just uphill from the killed Oak in Part 1, Cape Ivy is crowning and killing Oak branches while English Ivy mounds around the trunks…
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Midway through a cleanup session, we see Rob clearing the ground around Oak trunks. Oaks are said to really like air at their base (not Ivy) so we clear down to the ground around ‘em.
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Chester overlooking some left-behind Cape Ivy…
Before we cleared the Ivy, we would not have been able to see him because these long, low Oak branches were totally buried in hummocks of Ivy! These branches are the uphill side of the previous three pictures’ Oak.
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Free Ivy! (That’s an offer, not a command…)
Very distressed ivy (heap to left) with work area behind… Natural Areas Gardener Tom Annese says Cape Ivy – unlike English Ivy – can quickly re-root itself after being torn up so this heap is located on top of, yep, a bed of Cape Ivy.
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The Ivy-Killed Oak, again ...
Looking downhill toward the Lily Pond across a sea of Cape Ivy, we espy our next destination, huge masses of Cape Ivy overgrowing large Oaks (distance, right) ...
(To Be Continued in Part Three… )
Comments
2008-02-05 11:08:32 -0800, TereseL said:
This is great – as we all know, a picture paints a thousand words. Having spent a little time working in the Oak Woodlands I know what a wonderful change it is when the Ivy comes down and we are once again able to walk among the Oak trees. This post helps to tell that story to folks who haven’t seen the change happen themselves.
2008-02-06 00:54:49 -0800, jfred decker said:
Thank you, TereseL, I can’t imagine a more succinct expression of why I put assembled this little love-song …