Bachelor’s Button

Invasive:

Mountain Bluet  (Centaurea montana) has thicker foliage and fewer flower petals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Non-Invasive:

Cupid’s Dart is a long-stalked flower with blue or purple jagged-edged flower heads.

Bachelor’s Button is native to Southern Europe where it is known as ‘cornflower’ and is commonly found in grain fields. It is now considered endangered in its native habitat.

Bachelor’s Button prefers dry disturbed areas such as roadsides, riverbanks, meadows, fields, and grasslands.

Bachelor’s Button reproduces through seeds. The plant produces copious amounts of seeds, which germinate very quickly, helping the plant spread aggressively.

Bachelor’s Button is spread by gardeners; it is often planted in gardens and is commonly found in wildflower seed mixes. It is also often found as a contaminant in crop seed. Moreover, seeds are spread by wind, water, and birds that eat the seeds.

Bachelor’s Button is found in the Sea to Sky region and its distribution is beyond landscape-level control. When Bachelor’s Button is present at high-priority locations and negatively impacting them, their control is considered a high priority.

Otherwise, the goal is to prevent it from spreading to new (uninfested) areas, and to control it where possible to limit its impact on biodiversity.

Learn to identify Bachelor’s Button: use the images presented in this profile page to learn how to identify Bachelor’s Button.

What to do if you spot it: You can report any Bachelor’s Button sighting by clicking here.

 

DO:

• Regularly monitor properties for weed infestations.
• Ensure soil and gravel are uncontaminated before transport.
• Check wildflower mixes to ensure that they do not contain Bachelor’s Button.
• Ensure that plants are disposed of in a garbage bag if found in floral arrangements to prevent seeds from spreading.

 

DO NOT:

• Do not unload, park or store equipment or vehicles in infested areas; remove plant material from any equipment, vehicles, or clothing used in such areas and wash equipment and vehicles at designated cleaning sites before leaving infested areas.
• Do not plant Bachelor’s Button in a garden, no matter how well-contained its enclosure may seem.
• Do not move soil that has been contaminated with Bachelor’s Button.
• Do not compost

 

Control

Mechanical

• Repeated hand-pulling is the most effective way to control Bachelor’s Button, as long as the entire root system is removed.
• Regular mowing or tilling can reduce weed progression; material can be left on-site to decompose if the plant has not started flowering yet.
• Once Bachelor’s Button has flowered, all plant parts must be bagged and deeply buried at the landfill.
• Deadheading (removing the spent flower heads) can limit the plant’s self-seeding tendencies.
• When tilling, be sure to prevent machinery from spreading root fragments to new sites by washing it.

Chemical

• Plants should be treated when they are in the rosette stage.
• Bachelor’s Button control has shown success when using a mixture of glyphosate and aminopyralid or glyphosate and clopyralid.
• We recommend that any herbicide application is carried out by a person holding a valid BC Pesticide Applicator Certificate. Before selecting and applying herbicides, you must review and follow herbicide labels and application rates; municipal, regional, provincial and federal laws and regulations; species-specific treatment recommendations, and site-specific goals and objectives.

Biological

There are no biological control agents currently available for this plant.