Garden loosestrife (Lysimachia vulgaris) is one of the most recent additions to Oregon’s noxious weed list. As a class A noxious weed, the goal of land managers is to rapidly control infestations before they have a chance to gains a foothold. One critical component of this is approach is to increase awareness of this new invasive weeds, and make sure that people can identify and report these priority invasive weeds.
Up until this year, garden loosestrife was not previously observed within the state, but this season one patch was discovered on an island in the Willamette River near Salem. It was reported to the Oregon Department of Agriculture (ODA), who took swift action to control this infestation and will be monitoring the infestation for years to come.
The discovery of this Garden loosestrife patch on the Willamette River raises some important concerns for us here at the WeedWise program. First it begs the question, “Where did it come from?”. More importantly it suggests that there is likely more of this high priority invasive weed out there waiting to be discovered. It also suggests that this previously undiscovered noxious weed is just upstream of us and is knocking on our front door.
So we need your help to protect our region from this damaging noxious weed. We have created a weed profile for Garden loosestrife to help folks familiarize themselves with this new invader. So please take a minute to review the weed profile and keep your eyes open for this new invader, especially along the Willamette River. Many thanks to our partners at ODA for acting swiftly to control the Garden loosestrife we know about and many thanks to all of your for helping us find the Garden loosestrife we don’t know about.
If you find a plant you suspect is Garden loosestrife be sure to report it. Click the Report Weeds link to report your sightings.
