Hi everyone! This update is relatively recent, and has been mentioned other places, but I still wanted to bring it to everyone's attention here to help with Doronicum ID locally. A voucher from the Cedar River Trail in Maple Valley had been languishing in our herbarium for over 20 years stuck at genus, and our riparian specialists have been noticing its prolific movement downstream with greater-density colonies since larger disturbance/flooding events (especially those of 2020). Here is the old voucher and initial location information:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/205448699

and the same population 22 years later with help from @uff-da:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/206805873

Willdenow's leopard-bane or Doronicum x willdenowii

D x willdenowii (D pardalianches x D. plantagineum) in New Flora of the British Isles 2nd Ed (Stace).

Description: Short, glandular hairs with a few long eglandular hairs on petioles of basal leaves. Basal leaf bases are mostly rounded-truncate (sometimes slightly cuneate) and leaf margins are most often obscurely crenate-dentate (though there is a range of phenotypic expression within this population). Basal leaf shape is also obtuse (as opposed to acute). Combine this with the number of capitula (inflorescences)- which is usually less than but rarely more than 3! Locally common and naturalized within riparian forest in shady understory along both sides of Cedar River from Maple Valley down to Renton. Alnus rubra overstory, growing with Rubus bifrons, Alliaria petiolata, Hesperis matronalis, Ranunculus repens.

This one is now in the WTU Burke (UW) Herbarium:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/121826591

This one is represented in the WTU image collection:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/187311875

While impacts are understudied locally and generally rely on anecdotal observations, Doronicum is in Senecioneae and contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids (like ragwort and european coltsfoot) that impact forage, browse, and water quality (and honey quality!). D x wildenowii has a tuberous caudex and short, brittle rhizomes that can break off and form new plants. Basal leaves are the best way to ID and generally aren't the most intact by the time the plant is blooming. Doronicum sp. is on the NWCB monitor list but looks like the species being monitored in Skamania County is most likely D pardalianches given the leaf shape of the base of the basal leaves appear cordate (heart-shaped):
https://www.nwcb.wa.gov/weeds/leopards-bane

There is one other observation by Frank Lomer in BC that wasn't accessible when me and @echaley were looking at this but is now linked with these in the consortium of pnw herbaria. Also considered a "neophyte" in Belgium where it has also spread from cultivation and naturalized. Fun excerpt from a Scottish Newsletter 2022 from the Botanical Society of Britain & Ireland (2nd paragraph on p.18):
https://issuu.com/bsbi/docs/sn-2022/18

From Cambridge University Botanic Garden, where it is referred to as an "invasive species in northern Europe."

All Doronicum spp. are also on Bellevue Botanical Gardens' "prohibited" list even though one of the parents (D. plantagineum) has found its way there... https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/207276779

Many thanks to the botanical experts within the noxious weeds and consortium of PNW Herbaria-verse- especially the botanist @matt_mardigan for his early observations and David Giblin, UW herbarium, for his expertise. Please post any leopards bane you're seeing out in the world, especially King County so we can get it in this project and continue to learn about it! Thanks for keeping the observations coming and following!

Tom
terler@kingcounty.gov

Hi everyone,
Hope you've been able to avoid the smoke somehow these last few weeks and especially days. The Washington State Noxious Weed Control Board is hosting a public hearing to gather comments/data on escaped or "feral" holly and the broader the comments, the more the representative the decision will be.

I'm on the state noxious weed committee and we've been able to recommend a Class C listing for (feral) Ilex aquifolium for WA for next year. The language including the new legally defined term "feral" around the listing comes as a compromise to those who feel that the legal term "noxious weed" will stigmatize holly for mostly out of state buyers. Fortunately the Economic Impact Statement for the listing suggests that economic impact for growers will be minimal if any, and won't impact shipping. If any of you have interest in participating in the process with your position/thoughts on the listing via written comments or public testimony (or just attend the meeting) on 11/2/2022 @ 1pm... the details are here:
https://www.nwcb.wa.gov/whats-new

Let me know if you have questions! Your experiences with holly, collected data on costs, and takes on its impacts in WA would be valuable input for the board! If you know of others that would want to engage feel free to send them my way as well! Thanks for keeping the observations coming and following this project!

Tom
terler@kingcounty.gov

Hi everyone! I thought I'd start cross-posting some EDRR info from our program's internal discussions so everyone here can be initiated to some greater weeds of interest. Hopefully this project will help generate more accurate distribution information for the species discussed. I'll try to post according to phenology and what may currently be in bloom. Let me know if you'd like a deep dive on a weed of interest to you not mentioned here. First up, an increasingly used landscape sedge that may follow the trajectory of Carex pendula...

Grassland sedge or Carex divulsa subsp. leersii

Often also referred to as solely Carex divulsa or Carex leersii (feel free to ask any questions in the comments for more taxonomic clarity)

An introduced, understory-dominant invasive sedge found (by Peter Zika) thus far in King County. Sounds similar to Carex pendula but harder to differentiate from local, similar Carex species due to its inconspicuous, diminutive stature. Grassland sedge is escaping plantings and most likely early within its lag phase on the invasion curve in King County. From the 2019 update to the Flora of Oregon, Volume 1:

Carex divulsa Stokes, Grassland Sedge, is a European species commonly planted around buildings and in constructed swales for rainwater control. A prolific seeder, it readily escapes. Now it has been found escaped in the Portland area. It may well become a problem weed in wildlands; some escaped populations in California are now understory dominants in coastal forests.

Unfortunately, Carex divulsa is usually planted by people who want to plant a native ground cover and request native Carex tumulicola. The names have been confused in the horticultural trade. Both species can grow in grasslands and have androgynous spikes and perigynia about 3.5-5.5 mm long. Carex divulsa is a much leafier plant.

16' Inflorescence elongate, the lower spikes remote to overlapping but easily distinguished; perigynia brown to tan, sometimes with narrow green margins, not darker over the achene

16.5. Lower spikes crowded, lowest internodes shorter than to less than 2 times as long as the lowest spike; perigynia 1.5-2 mm wide, beak not winged; plants short-rhizomatous ................................... Carex tumulicola

16.5' Lower spikes remote, lowest internodes more than 2 times as long as the lowest spike; perigynia 2-2.6 mm wide; beak more or less winged; plants cespitose ........................................................... Carex divulsa

Here is an example of Grassland sedge escaping cultivation on UW main campus as noted by Burke Herbarium research associate, Peter Zika.

Here is the Herbarium voucher for the above observation.

Here are the King County observations thus far from iNat (much thanks to Scott Martin (@scottrobmartin) at UW for tracking a few of these)

We could all use more Herbaria records for grassland sedge in WA to get a better sense of its potential impacts locally.

Additional helpful links:

A great worksheet to help differentiate Carex divulsa from Carex tumulicola provided by the City of Portland Parks and Recreation and Environmental Services.

An Exotic non-Grass Graminoids of Potential Concern powerpoint presentation by Dominic Maze from City of Portland Environmental Services with good diagnostic ID for Carex divulsa.

A list of banned landscape plants within the City of Eugene, Oregon, where Carex divulsa is included alongside some of the PNW's most troublesome & highly regulated weeds.

A couple Seattle landscape architecture projects where Carex divulsa itself (and not mistakenly as Carex tumulicola) has been specified for installation. One will be in Queen Anne, the other in Eastlake.