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| Early warning that went unnotcied; for more on the story see: Edouards Baltars - Collection of Mile-a-minute in Maryland Aug. 23, 1964 |
History of the Introduction of Mile-a-minute weed (vine) - Persicaria perfoliata
Extract from my report to the US Forest Service: full document includes and annotated bibliography email request for full pdf at ipetrus"at"mns.com
Persicaria perfoliata (L.) Gross,
Mile-a-minute weed or vine, is an annual vine indigenous to Asia that infests
nurseries, orchards, openings in forested areas, roadsides, and drainage
ditches in the eastern United States (Yun Wu, R. C. Reardon and Ding, 2002). The
introduction and establishment of Persicaria
perfoliata in eastern North America, and the corresponding potential to
cause economic or environmental harm was reported in Rhodora, the Journal of
the New England Botanical Club. In the summer of 1946, a specimen from an
ornamental nursery in Stewartstown, York County, Pennsylvania, was sent to Dr.
John M. Fogg[1]
at the University of Pennsylvania Herbarium.[2] The new species was first detected around
1936 in the germination of holly seeds sent from Japan. The unknown species was
identified at the time as Polygonum
perfoliatum (L) (and checked against specimens in
the collections of the National Academy of Sciences in Philadelphia and the
Gray Herbarium at Harvard University (Moul, 1948).
 |
| Mile-a-minute on the run:
Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org |
Table 1 Persicaria perfoliata Details for: V47875 - 1954 collection BC,
Canada UBC[3]
|
In 1926 Joseph Benson Gable (1886 - 1972) started an ornamental nursery
on the family farm and orchard land where he was born. Starting out at first with native evergreens,
trees and shrubs, he eventually turned his attention to hybridizing some 2000
cultivated varieties of hardy rhododendrons and azaleas suitable to the
climatic gardening conditions of Mid-Atlantic (Weingartner, 1973).[4]
Gable planted his seedlings and hybrids among the woodlands on his land, a form
of horticultural intercropping that helped him "select" the most
adaptable specimens suitable to real-life landscape conditions.[5]
Gable
was attracted to the ornamental potential of Persicaria perfoliata's blue berries and allowed the plant to grow
and reproduce in his "woodland" nursery the following year. The novel introduction quickly established a
monoculture between the rows of trees in the family orchard as well as along
the paths and lanes of the nursery "choking all other herbaceous plants".
Dr. Edwin T. Moul, a noted phycologist and Professor of Botany at Rutgers
University, was shown around the nursery in October 1946 by Mr. Jack Swartley.[6]
Moul noted the vigor of Persicaria perfoliata was such that it overwhelmed
and killed even Lonicera japonica
Thunb. as well as Sambucus canadensis
L. and various Rubus species. Moul
also pointed out that Persicaria
perfoliata was able to cause defoliation of apple trees in the
orchard. Mr. Gable reportedly used 2-4D
in an futile, ineffective attempt to control the now spreading, aggressive weed.
Japanese beetles, Popillia japonica,
did more damage than the chemical control (2-4D). However he also noted that
the Persicaria perfoliata (P. perfoliatum) recovered quickly after
the beetles abundance and infestation peaked in mid-summer (Moul, 1948).
 | ||
| mile-a-minute weed -fruit- | Persicaria perfoliata (L.) H. Gross: Leslie J. Mehrhoff, University of Connecticut, Bugwood.org |
Eduards
Baltars, a University of Riga, Latvia, trained botanist who came to the United
States in 1949, collected several specimens of P. perfoliatum which he sent to the Smithsonian National Museum of
Natural History (1959) and the University of Maryland Norton Brown Herbaria
(1964; see Table 8). Eduards Baltars took over the curation of the Clyburn
herbarium in Baltimore and continued to collect native species of Maryland
flora until he died in 1972.[8] P.
perfoliata was reported in Maryland and by 1982 was established and spreading
throughout central Maryland reaching the USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center
along the mid-reaches of the Patuxent River in Maryland by 1989.[9]
Persicaria perfoliata was found in
North Carolina in 2010 continuing its spread along the east coast of the United
States, as well as moving west into Ohio. (Bargeron and Moorhead, 2007; Poindexter, 2010;
Tropicos.org, 2011). http://www.invasive.org/images/384x256/5273091.jpg
[1] Dr. John Milton Fogg, Jr., botanist,
University of Pennsylvania professor, Dean, and Vice Provost, director of the
Morris Arboretum, instructor at the Arboretum School of the Barnes Foundation,
and director of the Barnes Foundation Arboretum: John Milton Fogg Papers,
1931-1982. http://www.barnesfoundation.org/assets/public/ead/jmf_frameset.html
[3] UBC Herbarium. [accessed December 11, 2011]: http://herbie.zoology.ubc.ca/~botany/herbarium/details.php?db=vwsp.fp7&layout=vwsp_web_details&recid=139488&ass_num=V47875
[4] Weingartner, E. W. (1973). Gable Azaleas In
The Olive W. Lee Memorial Garden. Journal American Rhododendron Society, 27(2).
Retrieved from
http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JARS/v27n2/v27n2-weingartner.htm
"About 1,500 of the
approximately 2,000 azaleas in the Lee garden are Gable hybrids and the oldest
are now more than 30 years old. Maturity has revealed the ultimate
characteristics of each variety. Thus the original 'Mary Dalton' is 15 feet
high, although many of its branches are pendant from the burden of its
salmon-pink flowers over the years. 'Forest Fire' is not a large plant but is
said to be the only existing hybrid with R. tschonoskii as a parent, and its
sheets of blossoms are so densely packed that most are unable to open beyond
the bud stage. There are a number of highly regarded but as yet unnamed
seedlings in the garden. The most interesting of these is T-4-G, a very dwarf,
dense, dome-shaped plant covered with double salmon-pink flowers.
'Stewartstonian' is probably the purest red of any azalea, and that feature has
been exploited by a mass planting of some 125 specimens, now mature, on a slope
back lighted by the afternoon sun. Another area has been given over to 35
specimens of 'Mary Dalton' which at blooming time block the path they line
under the weight of their flowers. After the original 'Mary Dalton,' probably
the most admired specimen is a huge plant of 'Big Joe' which towers over and
seems to shelter other varieties in the same color range. (One frequent visitor
makes it a practice to curtsy as she passes 'Big Joe.')
The introduction of Gable rhododendrons
has probably not yet ended and Caroline Gable continues to screen the
seedlings remaining in the famed Gable woods, exercising the same
disciplined judgment which made the original Gable label assurance of the
highest quality. In general the rhododendron plants in the Memorial Garden are
not as old as the azaleas, but two Gable hybrids which are greatly admired are
specimens of 'Cadis' and 'Caroline,' secured in 1952, some years before they
were introduced. 'Cadis' is now 8 feet high and 11 feet wide and has carried as
many as 535 trusses. "
[5] The Rhododendron Legacy of Joe Gable by Donald W. Hyatt. Hybrids and Hybridizers, Rhododendrons and
Azaleas for Eastern North America, Livingston & West, Harrowood Press,
1978. http://www.tjhsst.edu/~dhyatt/gable.html
[6] The author presumes that this is the same
Jack Swartley - Stewardstown, York, Pennsylvannia.October 9,1946 J. C. Swartley "in old orchard"
Harvard Herbarium; see Table 8
http://kiki.huh.harvard.edu/databases/specimen_search.php?mode=details&id=228305 reference #353583.
[7] Glenn Dale
Plant Research Station, Henry A Wallace, Beltsville Agricultural
Research Center (USDA-ARS BARC)
[8] Isaac Rehert. June 19, 1971. Walk With Plant Specialist Presents
Variety of Lessons. Baltimore Sun
Eduards Baltars was unable to find
work as a botanist, teacher or researcher. He therefore worked as a carpenter
and donated his time and knowledge to the people of Maryland as a volunteer
curating the herbarium and planting and maintaining the native plant section of
the Clyburn Arboretum in Baltimore, Maryland.
[9] personal communication with the author: Matthew C. Perry, Research Wildlife
Biologist, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center. email March 7, 2012
"I
first identified mile a minute weed (Polygonum perfoliatum) at Patuxent on
September 11, 1989 in the Gabrielson Lab drainage ditch."
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