![]() ![]() Spring is the best time to pull up French broom and other non-native weeds, while the ground is still soft. This past Saturday marked the 89th CNPS broom bash on the east side of Lobos Ranch, east of Point Lobos, where French broom has become entrenched in a native Monterey pine forest. The local chapter of CNPS has been holding monthly “broom bashes” since January 2003, where volunteers gather to pull out as much as they can, and also to spray the plants with herbicide to eradicate it. “It occupies disturbed areas and then spreads slowly into the wildlands,” said local CNPS member Bruce Delgado, a botanist for the Bureau of Land Management. The California Native Plant Society has long been concerned about French broom”s assault on the state”s open spaces. Even if you eliminate the mature plants, the seed bank they leave behind will keep sprouting for many years to come. And without anything to keep it in check, it proliferates wildly.įrench broom produces thousands of tiny black seeds each year, which sprout and produce new plants. Because it”s not native to California, there are no insects, birds or other animals that like to eat it. It has tough stems and a long taproot, thrives on little water and poor soil, and grows either in sun or shade. What unwitting gardeners didn”t know is that French broom is tough to eliminate once established. “All it takes is one plant” to cause an infestation, Brodsley said. He prints up flyers at his own expense and distributes them to others in his housing development to alert neighbors to eradicate French broom if it pops up on their property. “They”re losing all that grazing pasture.”īrodsley, who pulls out the plant or sprays it whenever he finds it, has been a one-man task force against French broom near Carmel Valley Village. One ranch that borders Carmel Valley Road, owned by an out-of-state company, is “wall-to-wall French broom,” said Brodsley. Because nothing local eats or bothers it, there is little - besides the efforts of human beings - to stop its invasion.Ĭarmel Valley resident William Brodsley knows all too well the spread of this shrub in his area. This invasive, non-native plant is taking over Monterey County, growing so thickly in some places that it squeezes out native flora. No doubt you”ve gazed upon its sprays of yellow flowers in the Carmel Highlands or on Prunedale hillsides, which seem quite fetching because of the masses of blossoms that they produce at this time of year.ĭon”t be fooled. French broom, seen in the spring, is a deceptively pretty plant. ![]()
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