Category: Climate Change | Accent on Natural Landscaping

Plant Growth and CO2

November 6, 2019

One of the articles I reviewed as I researched for my posts on grape vines, stated “…CO2 seems to stimulate even more vigor in vines than other plants….” (Cooperative Extension Ask an Expert) This really piqued my curiosity. It seems vines appear to grow faster because increased CO2 reduces their need for as much sunlight to perform photosynthesis.*

Ancient air bubbles trapped in ice enable us to determine the levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. Today CO2 levels are higher than they have been at any time in the past 400,000 years. Graphic courtesy of NASA

Apparently, all plants grow faster as CO2 (carbon dioxide) levels rise, but this growth is not typically healthy growth. This increased growth occurs at the cost of decreased nutrition. Loss of iron and zinc in food crops and loss of protein in grains, for example. This also means as trees grower taller and produce more foliage, they will not be as strong to withstand the ravages of the extreme weather cycles we’ve been experiencing because of global warming. Its a “catch-22” we need to be taking seriously.

Can evolution react fast enough? Can scientists figure out how to manipulate genes fast enough? Before our Earth is impacted beyond repair? I guess we’ll see….

An easy to read article, which explains how photosynthesis is affected, can be found on The Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences website entitled Higher Carbon Dioxide Levels Prompt More Plant Growth, But Fewer Nutrients.

An easy to read description on how this will affect our food can be found at Forbes entitled Rising CO2 Is Reducing the Nutritional Value Of Our Food.

*You may recall from my earlier posts, wild grape vine needs sunshine to grow, which is why you seldom find wild grape vine growing in the shade.

Happy Halloween 2019!

October 31, 2019

You may have seen this NASA photo of an image of the sun that looks like a jack-o-lantern already, but I was so impressed, I thought I would share it for Halloween. Have a safe and happy Halloween celebration tonight!

Photo of sun looking like a jack-o-lantern courtesy of NASA/SDO

Active regions on the sun combined to look something like a jack-o-lantern’s face on Oct. 8, 2014. The image was captured by NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, which watches the sun at all times from its orbit in space.

The active regions in this image appear brighter because those are areas that emit more light and energy. They are markers of an intense and complex set of magnetic fields hovering in the sun’s atmosphere, the corona. This image blends together two sets of extreme ultraviolet wavelengths at 171 and 193 Ångströms, typically colorized in gold and yellow, to create a particularly Halloween-like appearance. (NASA/SDO)

2019 Fall Colors

October 25, 2019

Reference my post Why the Colors of Fall. This year here in East Central Wisconsin one can really see a difference in the colors of fall. The wet year we’ve had has produced variations in leaf color and the recent mild temperatures have slowed the change. But if you look closely, here and there you’ll find some bright oranges and beautiful golden yellows.

The orange leaves of the Blue Beech aka American Hornbeam (Carpinus caroliniana) are flanked by the green leaves of a hawthorn (Crataegus spp) in the foreground and the yellow leaves of an American Hophornbeam ((Ostrya virginiana) in background fall 2019.

The leaves of the American Witchhazel (Hamamelis virginiana) will turn yellow later in the fall, but its teeny tiny yellow flowers add a touch of cuteness to fall 2109.

Branched Coneflower aka as Brown-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia triloba) is the last thing blossoming in my prairie fall 2019 .

Th leaves of the Sugar Maple (Acer saccharum) are typically a lovely reddish orange. Not quite so fall 2019.

The red leaves of the Red Twig Dogwood aka Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericea ) are in the background and burgundy leaves of the Gray Dogwood (Cornus racemosa) are in the foreground fall 2019. The green leaves in the background are non-native Norway Maple (Acer platanoides).

The seedhead of the White Baneberry aka Doll’s Eyes (Actaea pachypoda) are strking fall 2019

The leaves of the Shagbark Hickory (Carya ovata) are typically a golden yellow fall 2019.

This mystery tree has beautiful red leathery leaves this fall. I always thought it was an American Beech (Fagus grandifolia), but their leaves are typically more orange.

Eradicating Wild Grape Vine

October 5, 2019

Reference my earlier posts on Wild Grape Vine & Pollinators and Grape Vines as a Source of Water. Because of these posts, a reader wrote to ask how to eradicate wild grape vine; she preferred not to use herbicide.

Because the transition area between my prairie and my woodland has become a bit overrun with wild grape vine (Vitis spp) and Virginia Creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), I thought this was a really excellent topic for me to research.

Non-Herbicide Method

If you are averse to using herbicide, you can smother the stem end after cutting it from the rest of the vine. Wild grape vine must have sunshine to grow.

Or, you can dig the root out of the ground after having cut the stem at the end. Be prepared, however, because this plant has a large root system.

Herbicide Method

This tangle of grape vines is near the gate of the chain link fence around my pool. I have to cut back the vines about three times a year to remove their weight from the gate and to prevent them from becoming a tripping hazard on the concrete deck.

The surest way to eradicate wild grape vine, or for that matter, any unwanted vine, is during the autumn, when they are pulling nutrients back into their roots for their winter nap. Cut the vine at the beginning of the stem and carefully and safely paint just the cut end of the remaining stump with herbicide.

The Cooperative Extension says “to cut them down at the base and IMMEDIATELY treat the freshly cut stump with an herbicide with glyphosate or triclopyr. Do not let the herbicide get on the trunks of your trees (or anything but the vine).” (Cooperative Extension)

A Caution

Any of these control methods will work for vines growing up into trees and shrubs. There is no need to remove the vine from the trees and shrubs, since it should decay and fall away on its own. However, if the vines have grown extensively overtaking the tree, you might try to remove vine stems from as far up as you can reach to reduce the weight on the tree. Do not pull the vines down since that will damage the branches of the tree.

Also, bear in mind none of these methods will kill any of the rest of the vine that is running/growing along the ground. These runners will either have to be pulled up or smothered, or cut where the roots have anchored themselves into the ground and the cut end safely and carefully painted with herbicide. This is the situation I in which I find myself in my transition area, and I think I should tackle this task soon.