[MAIPC] [EXTERNAL] Microstegium and ferns

[MARGARET L CHATHAM]

I asked when this thread started which ferns kept Microstegium at bay, & got no answer. I have now seen this at Fraser Preserve: NY fern patch making a gap in the stilt grass. Other ferns I’ve seen at Fraser seem to ignore stilt grass & go their merry way regardless, but they do not keep it out, not Christmas fern, ebony spleenwort, lady fern, sensitive fern, silvery spleenwort, netted chain fern, broad beech fern, maidenhair, Dryopteris carthusiana, D cristata, D intermedia, D marginalis, royal fern, cinnamon fern, interrupted fern, and certainly not rattlesnake, grape, or adder’s tongue. Common polypody only grows on rocks where stilt grass can’t. Only other possibility (at Fraser) of a fern keeping out stilt grass not yet checked out is hayscented.

Margaret Chatham

> On Sep 14, 2021, at 7:56 AM, Marc Imlay <ialm at erols.com> wrote:
> 
> Could the ferns be related in any way to the dense infiltration of Biopolaris microstegii like plaques that completely wiped out a very large patch of Japanese Stiltgrass about a decade ago?
>  
> From: Rod Simmons <Rod.Simmons at alexandriava.gov <mailto:Rod.Simmons at alexandriava.gov>> 
> Sent: Tuesday, September 14, 2021 12:11 AM
> To: Marc Imlay <ialm at erols.com <mailto:ialm at erols.com>>
> Cc: INVASIVES at listserv.umd.edu <mailto:INVASIVES at listserv.umd.edu>; maipc at lists.maipc.org <mailto:maipc at lists.maipc.org>
> Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL][MAIPC] Microstegium and ferns
>  
> Good work, Marc!  At the forested Gold Mine Tract above Great Falls Park, MD, Brachyelytrum erectum and shade have severely constricted Microstegium.
>  
> Hay-scented Fern, to your point, has done the same at Catoctin Park.
>  
> Elymus villosus has seemingly set back Microstegium at Chapman State Park where we mechanically removed Ligustrum sp. years ago.
> 
> 
>> On Sep 13, 2021, at 7:09 PM, Marc Imlay <ialm at erols.com <mailto:ialm at erols.com>> wrote:
>> 
>>  
>> Today I was doing routine removal of non-native invasive species in my local park in Charles County Maryland, where a large patch of Japanese stilt grass died about a decade ago between flower and seed. (typical rust plaques)This has not happened again in the following years. Unfortunately stilt grass has become too difficult in the 200 acre park because it has moved in so much from outside the park. But what was interesting today is the location of the original patch is now dominated by large fern patches, several times more than stilt grass, It is on the top and edge slopes of a mountain like area, which by the way has a wonderful large patch of Mountain Laurel about 150 feet from the fern and stilt grass area. This may be of interest for research on biological control of Japanese stilt grass. BTW, I am succeeding with all the other invasives, including garlic mustard, wineberry, beefsteak plant etc. Cheers
>>  
>> Marc Imlay
>>  
>> Natural Places Committee
>> Maryland Sierra Club
>> Board member MAIPC
>> 301 442-5657
>>  
>> 
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