Several years ago, I flooded an excavation for what was supposed to be a house remodel, and turned it into a backyard pond. I put cattails, which are tall plants, in the south end to hide the black plastic pond liner from view.
This Fall and Spring I pulled up a couple of the cattails, and trimmed a couple of others. In response they spread to the northwest, taking over 2/3rds of the Pond.
They encroach into the lilies. That is forbidden.
I even found a baby cattail growing in the unconnected Frog Mitigation Area pond, twenty feet away. How did it get there? Did a rhizome pull itself out of the water and slither across land to the other pond, one rainy night?
The Cattails also have accomplices; the Bullrushes.
Well, a Rush there isn’t so bad, I’ll just move it into the nearby creek.
But the next two are getting moved a long way.
So far at least two Rushes have snuck into this elevated bed around Cattail Pond, pictured below. Their probable flowering parent is 40 feet to the left.
I thought of just leaving the Rushes alone, who volunteered to grow there and are native. If I ignored them, how long until they took over?
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