What plants scare you the most and why ?

[cyan999]

Even though you may admire still them, what plants (that you've either seen, or so far just read about) 'scare' you the most (however you define that) and please say why, for any one/s named ?

[Timothy]

Heracleum lanatum

[DrLith]

I'm scared of poison ivy for the obvious reasons. And giant hogweed just frightens the bejeebus out of me. (Heracleum mantegazzianum)

[Paul Below]

see

[Janet Baraclough]

The message from DrLith contains these words:

Get a life, both of you. Normal people are not scared or frightened of plants.

Janet.

[Cereus-validus.....]

What kind of question is that supposed to be?

There are many spiny and poisonous plants in the world that one should be wary of but being scared of them is silly.

[paghat]

When I was staying with people who live in the redwoods, I was always worried outside because the poison ivy was just EVERYwhere. There's nothing worse than nettles where I live, & it's possible to get revenge on nettles by frying them up with potatos &amp eating them, so there's never any leeriness walkikng in the woods around PUget Sound. It was a strange feeling in the redwoods to be worried about a plant.

-paghat the ratgirl

[Stephen Henning]

Along the Snake River in Hell's Canyon, on the Oregon side there is a plant that sounds exactly like a rattle snake when you walk through it. I was with a forest service crew that was taken in to a fire by boat at night. We had to hike from the river up to the fire at night while it sounded like we were surrounded by rattle snakes. What made it worse was that on the way in at dusk we had seen a diamond back rattler that stretched all the way across a dirt road. He was BIG.

The plant may have been Perilla frutescens or Rattlesnake weed. After blooming from July to October, they leave their calyx on the spike to cover the seed pod, shake the dry seed stalks and it rattles like a rattlesnake. Perilla is often confused with purple Basil and used for the same purposes.

[Cereus-validus.....]

Perilla frutescens is an Old World species. Are you saying native Americans somehow got this plant from China to wrap ther sushi in it? Its introduction into the New World flora as a weed was long after Columbus arrived.

I doubt it. Guess again.

There are a number of native American perennial legumes that have rattle-box seed pods.

[lgb]

Actually, you should have been scared of the redwoods. Branches shed from the upper canopies of redwoods were known as "widow-makers" for a reason :-).

[Cereus-validus.....]

Thanks for the advice, Chicken Little!!!!

Be thankful there are no elephant birds and that the ones that did once exist couldn't fly!!!

[Tom Jaszewski]

Definitely Cereus....they'll definitely stick the ignorant....

[Gary]

Venus Fly Trap - definitely! Jeff Goldblum

[Stephen Henning]

"Cereus-validus....." wrote:

I am not native American, I didn't eat it, and this happened well into the Columbian period after Scots broom had taken over the west.

[raycruzer]

In my neighborhood of N.E. Los Angeles (Mt. Washington), the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is rapdily encroaching on vacant hillsides on both sides of my property and attempting to invade my own garden, as well. Left unattended in a neighboring lot, this weedy tree has already created a little thicket of about a dozen trees now reaching over 30 feet tall.

The hillsides of Highland Park and Eagle Rock are spotted with these pesty plants and it's a nightmare to think what these rolling hills will look like 10 years from now if we don't somehow directly attack their progress.

The California Invasive Plant Council has listed this species as one of the Most Invasive Wildland Pest Plants and Widespread. Any suggestions on how to restrain or destroy these heavenly devils will be appreciated.

EWIRM: Know your weeds to control your weeds...

[Travis]

Why don't you ask the California Invasive Plant Council what to do.

[Stephen Henning]

In the Southeast, kudzoo [Pueraria montana] can cover your house and trees if you don't fight it back.

Here in the Northeast and Oregon, the mile-a-minute plant [Polygonum perfoliatum] will cover you if you don't walk fast enough. In reality it will cover and kill other plants. It looks like a wild squash vine, really wild. It is called the kudzoo of the Northeast.

Some bamboo is known to grow at a rate of 91 cm per day. It is more fun than watching grass grow.

[presley]

[Travis]

Bamboo is a grass.

[Pat Kiewicz]

Cut them down and swab the stump with brush killer. Even then, be on the lookout for sprouts from distant roots.

This plant aggressively resprouts from any bit of root. And I've had apparently dead stumps send up shoots after a whole year of inactivity (however impossible that seems, I swear it happened).

The seedlings grow deceptively slowly the first year. All their energy seems to go to producing a massive root system.