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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Here is information on my lesser celandine control efforts.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>At Tucquan Glen Nature Preserve, the main place people hike and where I have concentrated my invasive plant control efforts is west of River Rd. I have been checking floodplains annually for garlic mustard. A few years back I noticed lesser celandine coming in a number of places on the floodplains. Then in the last two or three years I saw increasing amounts. So in 2015 I decided I had better check upstream east of River Rd. I saw that large areas were covered by it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Earlier I had found that digging out whole plants is not practical. A large amount of soil remains on the roots and so carrying out bags of it would be difficult. Also I saw that bulbs often got broken off in the process and were hard to retrieve from the soil. So I tried just cutting under the bulbs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>In 2014 and 2015 I removed </span><span style='color:#1F497D'>lesser celandine</span><span style='color:black'> in a few places by cutting under the bulbs with a sharpened paring knife and lifting out the plants and bagging them. I am delighted to see that where this was done thoroughly for two years, there is almost no lesser celandine now. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>But I can’t cut out large numbers of plants! So this year I decided to try preventing seed and bulbil formation by string trimming as a first step in preventing spread.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>I noticed that it started growing in the fall and that small leaves survived through the winter. I don’t know whether this occurs in colder winters. (I noticed the leaves Dec. 26.) Meghan Fellows wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='margin-left:.5in'><span style='color:black'>We get full senescence in June with re-emergence beginning by mid-December. But following it last year, I was pretty sure more individuals emerged as the season progressed (vs just more leaves from the same bulbils). Have you seen <u>Some biological aspects of the weed Lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria</u>) Planta Daninha vol 31 no 3 July/Sept 2013? Bulbil size also matters.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>On March 3, I tested a Stihl FSA85 cordless electric string trimmer on lesser celandine east of River Rd. on the floodplain. This works well, but I need to clear sticks and protect ferns before trimming. A pitchfork works well for both – it can be stuck in the ground to protect ferns or other plants from the trimmer. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>I have a 6-tine pitchfork which I really enjoy using and think it is better than the 5-tine forks. I noticed that our Ace Hardware sells one and calls it a manure fork. Here’s a link to their website. </span><span style='color:#1F497D'>http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1341327&cp=2568443.2568444.2598674.2601431.2602642</span><span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Around March 24 I checked the spot I trimmed on March 3. The lesser celandine had formed new leaves which were much smaller than uncut plants. I recut these and a larger area, but only a small fraction of the whole infestation. I should concentrate on cutting it close to the stream to minimize spread by seed and bulbils.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>I found that you can tilt the trimmer 90 degrees and trim down on the bulbs to destroy them. It is easy to see what you are doing because the</span><span style='color:#1F497D'> bulbs</span><span style='color:black'> appear as white dots as you trim down into them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>I have been checking for bulbil formation on the stems. So far (April 5) I have not found any, but I did find them last year so we do have the subspecies which forms them. I don’t know when seeds mature, but plants should be trimmed before then! Right now (early April) may be the best time to trim because a lot of energy has gone out of the bulbs to form leaves, but hopefully seeds and bulbils have not formed yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Anyone trimming lesser celandine needs to be careful not to trim violets. Lesser celandine leaves are dark green and very glossy. They have smooth edges (no teeth) and long petioles. Right now some violets have leaves that look a lot like lesser celandine leaves. Violet leaves don’t have the shiny glossiness and the green color is not the same. Violet leaves may have fine teeth which may not be noticed from a distance. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>I have a Stihl FSA 85 trimmer. This is a top-quality light-weight trimmer that has the battery at the end of the shaft opposite the trimming head. This makes it very easy to use. With the AP180 battery I can trim intermittently for about 2 hours. I chose the AL500 charger, for fairly rapid recharging. The EasyCut trimmer head is refilled using two 8-ft. pieces of 2 mm Stihl twine. You should have the dealer show you how to refill it because the Stihl directions are poor!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>Variable speed control is important. You can run the trimmer at low speed to lengthen the time the battery charge lasts. And at low speed you have better control and no vibration. The Stihl FSA 65 does not have variable speed control – don’t get that model!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>March 23 observations: In Lancaster County Central Park on the trail along Mill Creek below the meadows (W & N side of the creek). The coverage of many areas with lesser celandine is solid, even going up hillside all the way in places on the other side on private property. Many but not all plants are in bloom.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>In a number of places it is getting moved from the floodplain onto the slopes and then spreading straight down the slope from the initial plants. In one place where there is a lawn infested with it, there are widely scattered plants in relatively flat woods. Seed must be getting spread by animals. I </span><span style='color:#1F497D'>think that </span><span style='color:black'>this pattern of spread could not be from bulbils. Bulbils easily break off and float downstream but would only be deposited on the floodplains.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'>John Ambler<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></body></html>