Black Swallow-wort in Massachusetts – Join the Fight

 

It’s prime time in the war against Black Swallow-wort in Massachusetts – Swallowwort is flourishing in Massachusetts and there are large stands around Cambridge, Watertown, Medford and Somerville.

Black Swallow-wort is a very invasive plant that can take over a landscape and spread far if seeds are dispersed. Not only will it crowd out other plants but it has been shown to have a negative impact on songbird populations and on monarch butterflies.

I have a feeling that Black Swallow-wort thrives with a lot of rain because there’s a bumper crop out there.  The pods seem to have come out early – I found vines with maturing pods in June. 

Around the city it often seems that homeowners think that Swallowwort is an attractive vine.  In Cambridge and Somerville you often find the vines climbing over chain link fences – providing a wall of greenery that hides the chain link.  When we were on our weekly tour I spotted a new real estate listing in Watertown where a support had been carefully placed in the garden for a Swallow-wort vine.

You do NOT want to encourage Black Swallow-wort in your garden – and instead should mount a full scale campaign to eradicate it.

While it is an ongoing struggle to kill Black Swallow-wort – best done with liberal applications of Round-up – and lots of digging – now is the time to collect pods.

The first year I discovered swallow-wort in my yard I made the mistake of breaking off  the vines and leaving the pods. Unfortunately even when the vine is dead the pods will eventually open and disperse their fluff-borne seeds. 

Pods must be removed and burned or carefully bagged and disposed of in a landfill.

I have taken to carrying bags with me in order to collect pods.  This morning in Watertown Square I happened to pass a hedge with Swallow-wort vines growing in it.  By the time I was done I had collected over 2.5 POUNDS of pods!!

What Does Swallow-Wort Look Like?

• Swallow-wort’s shiny green leaves come in pairs
• The vine grows fast and will twine around fences and tree and bush branches
• The pods are slim, smooth and green
• When it flowers the vine has small, purple, star-shaped blossoms

Please join the fight!!  If you see swallow-wort pods – pluck them!  Swallow-wort will soon blanket Massachusetts if we don’t stem its spread.

Here are some more photographs of Black Swallow-wort found in Cambridge and Watertown:

 

Categories: Living Here
Tags: Gardening

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 12:09 am and is filed under Living Here. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. Lyn Lombard said at January 19th, 2010 at 5:37 pm

   How much of Massachusetts is affected by this weed? Is anything being done to stop its spread?

2. Elizabeth Bolton said at January 21st, 2010 at 12:05 pm

   Hi Lyn ~ I don’t know if black swallowwort is everywhere in Massachusetts. I’ve seen references to it out in Lincoln and Concord and I see it all the time in Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, Medford, Somerville and Watertown. Once you know what it looks like you’ll start noticing it.

   Some efforts are being made for sure. But it’s an ongoing battle. For instance, I know that Lesley College students leafletted in the Agassiz neighborhood near the campus sometime in the past and yet I see black swallow-wort all the time in the neighborhood.

   I think that county or state departments have people who specialize in invasive plants and I’m sure this is on their radar. In the meantime I’m trying to spread the word to stop the spread! Come spring I’ll put gloves and bags in my car – if I see it I have to pick it. The gloves are key because at some point in its lifecycle I become somewhat allergic to it.

   Thanks for your interest. Spread the word!

   Liz

3. Laurel Ricciarelli said at May 8th, 2010 at 6:08 pm

   Thank god for your article.

   This plant is starting to pop up all over my yard. When I bought my house, one side of it had a chain link fence and during my first summer, I noticed the fence became covered in this vine. I thought “great”, I have this wonderful vine to cover that ugly fence. Four summers later, this is one seriously invasive vine and now I am finding it in every plant bed and around my home’s foundation – not good. I am now on a mission to destroy all of it. If you have any good suggestions, I’d love to hear it. In the meantime I’ll use Roundup and pull all of the pods. I will also spread the word about this awful plant.

4. Laurel Ricciarelli said at May 8th, 2010 at 6:10 pm

   By the way, I live in Peabody Massachusetts and I see this vine around the neighborhood.

5. Alasdair said at December 12th, 2010 at 5:53 pm

   I had this damn thing in my backyard in Waltham some years ago. Seemed nothing else grew back there but these vines. I believe these are mildly poisonous if the stems or leaves are broken, so your reader who mentioned gloves has the right idea. It’s not like poison ivy, but it is an irritant for many people and if you’re undergoing a wholesale eradication you’re going to have to take a bath afterward if you don’t cover up properly. Best of luck.

6. Elizabeth Bolton said at December 12th, 2010 at 9:34 pm

   Thanks Alasdair. It took me a while to discover that it becomes irritating to the skin about the middle of the season. I can’t resist picking and pulling it whenever (and wherever!) I see it. It does start to cause a rash once it’s fairly well along in its growth. I try to remember to keep gloves or newspaper bags in the glove compartment for this reason.

7. Linda Julien said at May 27th, 2011 at 8:25 am

   I have quite a bit of this evil stuff in my yard in Medford, and it’s recently seeded itself into the lawn. This year I’m trying a newly available iron-based broadleaf weedkiller — Iron HEDTA, which I got under the brand name of Iron-X (though I understand you can find it under other brand names, too). It’s a bit early to say for sure how well it’s going to work, but the swallow wort that I liberally sprayed yesterday is indeed looking sick. I’m hopeful, perhaps mostly because there’s no way I could manage to dig up all of those plants by hand to get to the root crown.

   I’m curious if anyone else has tried Iron HEDTA on the stuff, and with what results. The stuff isn’t cheap, but if it will get rid of the swallow wort, I’ll buy as much as I need.

8. cheryl said at July 28th, 2011 at 2:52 pm

   This vine is a very invasive vine, and it is sometimes mistaken for a beautiful vine that travels along wire fences. Please don’t let the beauty fool you, for it will take over your whole entire garden. This plant will suck the life out of your plants. I live in Dorchester, MA and I don’t believe that many people realize what this plant is capable of. This is also a plant to becareful of because, it will even cause skin problems such as poison ivy does when the plants is distrubed.

   With education of this plant, prehaps we can get rid of it.

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