Himalayan Balsam (Impatiens glandulifera) - it's here and it's staying, unless we do something about it. You'll find it everywhere. Traverse the boardwalk, it's there. Walk up to Offley Marsh, it's along the verge. Webmaster and his assistant even grew this "pretty flower" for a while thinking it was a good thing to have in the garden. It takes some getting rid of.If you see it, pull it out. If you don't it'll be there a hundred-fold next year. They're coming! Quick! Run away! (Or, on second thoughts, just give 'em a yank.)
2 comments:
The key objective for control of Himalayan Balsam is to exhaust the plants seed bank by preventing them reaching maturity and setting seed. Management must therefore be carefully timed to repeatedly remove adults before reaching full maturity. Typical seed bank longevity is approximately 2 years, and any control programme should be tailored to encompass the full length of this period. Following control, a monitoring programme is recommended for approximately 5 years.
Adult plants are often controlled chemically, however the use of herbicides near a watercourse is restricted and requires prior written permission from the Environment Agency in England and Wales and SEPA in Scotland . Chemical control can take up to two years to eradicate the plant (with additional monitoring following this). During the control programme, revegetation needs to be undertaken to prevent erosion of the bare riverbank.
For small areas of Himalayan Balsam, hand pulling is an effective way of removing adult plants, however this is highly labour intensive. In particularly sensitive areas such as nature reserves, using a volunteer workforce to hand pull plants can be effective and environmentally friendly.
Cutting or grazing can achieve control, however cutting should not be attempted once the seed heads have formed, as this would effectively spread the plant. Plants can regrow within the same season after cutting and so continual monitoring should be undertaken to prevent reseeding. The first monitoring visit should be timed shortly after cutting, as Himalayan Balsam has been known to re-grow within weeks of control.
http://www.nonnativespecies.org/01_Fact_File/06_Old_Fact_Sheets/Himalayan_Balsam.cfm?tvk=NBNSYS0000003189
Victoria. Thanks very much for the detailed overview and the weblink. It's certain that we're seeing it more prolific around the Bishops Offley area and, of course, where we have marshy areas, it's developing massively.
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