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Leafy Spurge
April 12, 2006
The Strange Plant at the Bishop's Garden Mystery has been solved! Thank you to the commenter who tipped me off to "Leafy Spurge". Get ready for some IRONY. The USDA categorizes this plant as an aggressive, persistent, deep-rooted perennial weed that invades a wide variety of habitats in the U.S. and Canada.
Huh? It's growing like wild fire in the cathedral's Bishop's Garden. Could this be the work of Satan? Dear God! It's Holy Week! Do they realize there is spurge which needs to be purged, and it's lurking just outside the cathedral?
Quick! Someone call an exorcist!
I think it's a cool plant. I'd grow it in my garden if I had one, but I guess if I was a rancher with cattle I'd think otherwise. The noxious weed is toxic to cows and horses. Thank goodness there aren't any of those at the cathedral. If you do happen to visit via horse and buggy this easter sunday, make sure you park way out on Wisconsin Avenue just to be on the safe side.;)
Don't be too alarmed. The weed is safe when kept in its natural habitats, but in prairie lands, it grows like crazy, sucking up all the water in the soil and killing off other plants, and of course, cows. Sorry mom... I guess you won't be growing this stuff out in Kansas.
Posted by susan at April 12, 2006 8:32 AM
Comments
Oh, no wonder I didn't recognize it! That's a 'kill on sight' plant out here (lots of agriculture). Just the name is enough to bring out the hoes and Roundup...
Posted by: dan at April 12, 2006 2:08 PM
Why, just the sort of plant Jesus would have befriended to help it see it's greedy way of living... lol. How apropos it grows in the Bishop's Garden!
Posted by: samtzmom at April 12, 2006 4:09 PM
Don't grow it in Colorado, either. When we first bought our house here, we loved the plant and dug some up and transplanted it to all over our yard. Then we learned about it, and started digging it up. Yup, it does take over and drink up all the water, what little there is. Scurge of Satan, get thee out of Colorado!
No Roundup, though, please, Dan! That's a relative of Agent Orange (defoliant), and has no business being used on home gardens. It gets into our groundwater.
Posted by: Wandering Willow at April 13, 2006 12:00 AM
Easy Willow *g*! That was generic for our locale: I hand pull in my gardens (or have the boys hoe if it's the side yard with no flowers)...
Posted by: dan at April 13, 2006 3:07 AM
a cute variety of weeds may i say...
Posted by: Bizzareminds at April 13, 2006 11:04 AM
