For those of you familiar with our Adopt-A-Trail program, hopefully you got this one! No need to worry if you didn’t, but do keep the program in mind for next year!
Common Burdock (Arctium minus) was introduced to North America from Eurasia and was brought over for its medicinal characteristics, to make paper and coffee. It was also the inspiration for the invention of Velcro!
This sticky weed can be identified by its erect, coarse stem that can grow up to 3 m tall in its second year of growth. Its leaves form a rosette in the first year, with large and wavy heart-shaped basal leaves that sometimes get confused for rhubarb. The upper leaves alternate with wavy edges and a woolly underside. Common Burdock’s flowers emerge in the plant’s second year of growth, as well! Purple blooms rest atop circular burs with hooked, prickly bristles. Eventually, these flowers mature into brown Velcro-like burs that get stuck to clothing, socks, and pet fur.
Highly invasive due to its ability to out-compete grasses in pastures, Common Burdock prevents native plants from getting the required amount of sunlight, due to the size of its leaves. Cattle will willingly graze on the weed as well, reducing the quality of dairy produced, and spreading its burs to other areas in the process. Not only that, but there have even been cases where bats and birds have gotten entangled in the burs, to a severe enough extent that it resulted in their deaths.
Burdock can be found throughout the Sea to Sky region, growing in the moist, fertile, nitrogen-rich soils of disturbed areas such as roads, ditches, and riparian areas.
This villainous plant is categorized as “strategic control” under SSISC’s Species Priority List. That means we have to take extra care to prevent it from spreading into new territories! Think you’ve spotted Common Burdock? Report it here or email us at info@ssisc.ca.
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