Monday, March 24, 2014

Garlic Mustard vs Skunk Cabbage: Wetland Wars and Adaptation

PHOTO BY JONATHAN SCHECHTER/ MARCH 21, 2014
  
 Garlic mustard is a European exotic that has spread rapidly into 27 Midwestern and Northeastern States   
 and Canada and continues to spread into high quality woodlands upland and floodplain forests, not just     disturbed high-use  trail use areas.  Sadly garlic mustard alters habitat suitability for the success of  native flora and fauna.  I photographed these bright green just emerged garlic mustard leaves last weekend in a wooded wetland of the Oak Openings Preserve of Lucas County, Ohio. Of note is the young garlic mustard plants received  a head start on their growth season by  emergence adjacent to skunk cabbage (hooded reddish/yellow plant in photo),  a native plant that creates its own  heat and melts and pushes up through ice and snow before other plants and by that act created a more suitable habitat for  invasive garlic mustard.  .                     

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