Near the pond on the Botany Trail at 8 a.m. on 12 October

Near the pond on the Botany Trail at 10 a.m. on 12 October

 On Sunday, I did some work on the invasives along the Botany Trail near the pond at Flanders Nature Center & Land Trust.  There was a lot of multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) there as well as bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus).  

Multiflora rose has thorny, arching stems that can grow up to 13' tall.  They can reach into shrubs and trees, and they often give the bittersweet an assist on its way into the canopy.  

These were the challenges I encountered today.  I learned the hard way to take on multiflora rose in steps.  The first step is to cut the stems within reach so that reaching the canes at the base is manageable.  (A few years ago, I tried to do too much too fast and poked myself in the face with a multiflora rose thorn.  I wound up at the doctor's office to receive treatment for cellulitis.  Today, I took my time.)

Getting rid of the berries is important because they do not provide nutrition to the birds who eat them, though the birds nevertheless manage to spread the seeds far and wide.  Smothering the seeds presents this problem if you can't get to the plants before they produce fruit.

Once I pruned the multiflora rose to a manageable size,  I was able to get the canes at their base and to pull them out en masse.  Once the spring comes, it will be easy to monitor this area and remove new growth.

Next came the bittersweet, a vine that runs like cable under the surface and then making right turns here and there and turning upward into the shrubs and trees.  Removing bittersweet requires pulling it up by the roots and down by cutting it so that pulling it down does not harm the host plant.  Bittersweet will branch at sharp angles and then wrap around the host's branches.  It will strange the branches like a boa constrictor, so cutting it in segments and unwrapping the tree is in the tree's best interest.

I was having a grand time in the quiet of a breezy Sunday morning and had the pleasure of talking to a young family about the work.  The parents brought their beautiful little girl out for a walk, and I found myself thinking how the trees we volunteers have been freeing from the invasives may well grow up to be beautiful members of the overstory by the time she is my age.

That grand time continued until the multiflora rose exacted revenge from my lovely and soft LL Bean trail pants.  Two thorns caught the fabric of my right leg and tore right-angle holes that made me very glad only my knee and thigh were exposed!

Foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia)

The clearing away of invasives exposed a stretch of foamflower (Tiarella cordifolia). which attracts early bees and butterflies and the larval host for eastern commas, mourning cloaks, question marks.  Next year, this native plant will have the opportunity to thrive.