How far has this stuff spread! Every time I pick up a copy of Trout & Salmon or the like it seems to figure as the singular herbaceous marginal plant, at the obvious exclusion of perennials such as Hemp Agrimony, Willow Herb and Meadow Sweet.

It’s a simple yet laborious job to carefully weed wipe the stuff (in the green) and with the river being such a huge seed base for the ‘big three’, I’m sure they would recolonise soon after. How on earth has this monocot been able to gain such a strong foot hold in the first place though and why is it such a recent arrival?

Easy answer is that there are too many waters not under the benevolent dictatorship of keepers...

richard

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Who resides on the right bank of the Derbyshire Wye and is lulled to sleep each night by the mutterings of a weir, dreaming that "When the rivers and their inhabitants come first, we ALL win..."

Hi Richard
Not quite the answer I was expecting....to blame the keepers.....but I like the way you are thinking.

Hi Warren

It just doesn't seem as big a problem as Giant Hogweed or Himalayan Balsam....but as pointed out somewhat more controllable as a target.????

As to a reason for its arrival.....seed merchants or farmers...take your pick did the farmers ask for it as a mixed sward forage or was it just made so by the merchant/nutrient advisor.
Like a lot of these situations....it was never the intent.... but this generation and the next one now OWN the problem.

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Two things to have in life - A good bed and a good pair of boots -and if you aren't in one you should be in t'other

What exactly is wrong with reed canary grass?
It is a good bank-binder and provides good fringing cover.
I am "guilty" of having spead and sown quite a lot of it!!
P

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Trout fishermen revere the trout; trout, on the other hand, unaware of their sublime standing in man's world, revere nothing, including man, a creature they seem to view with special contempt. Nihilism is a rare trait in fish but trout are full of it. The old men liked that.

It's one of the fastest convertor of biomass in the northern hemisphere. Nothing can compete with it so it grows to the exclusion of all other riverside plants. The river banks, rather than being diverse both in terms of flora and fauna, now only support RCG and the insects that can live on that plant (very few). This doesn't just include fully emerged plants but semi-emergent plants as well.

Hi Warren

Educate me now Warren Why?....

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Two things to have in life - A good bed and a good pair of boots -and if you aren't in one you should be in t'other

Well because RCG is both emerger and terrestrial. In sections of river where it gets a strong hold, even the water cress is out competed. Ever noticed how slow sedge beds are at creeping forwards into the margin? One sedge bed I know has taken 15 years to move 10” into perfectly suitable, year round shallow and dead water. The rysomes of sedge prefer rich, organic material to grow in; the RCG will even grow alongside fast water (and encroach into the current).

We have a huge belt of Hemp Agrimony, by the side of the river, that is alive with insects during its flowering stage but crack open a dead stalk in December and you will find larvae over-wintering inside; big grubs about an inch long. Within this bed a single RCG stem appeared and seeded without us noticing. Two years later RCG had taken over 1/10 of the bed. That patch of RCG had nothing else growing in it.