Curly Dock: Why was it introduced?

In my neighborhood Dock and Burdock are crowding out the native “weeds” and even foreign weeds that provide better nectar and pollen sources for pollinators, and leaves for caterpillars. I am trying to deal with the established plants with weighted cardboard, but it may take years. I live in an area that once had stockyards, and I think they were used as animal feed, especially for pigs.

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Yes, that plant was mentioned a lot! Though I believe the benefits of Plantago major are more strongly backed by scientific research.

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According to Euell Gibbons, there was even a rhyme that you are supposed to say: “Nettle in, Dock out, Dock rub nettle out.”

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And that’s my favorite tree. We all value different things. To me it’s very beautiful, and I love how it can survive around humans. I’m really into the wild plants of the human ecosystem, the trees and wildflowers that like living with us, like dock, which to me is also beautiful.

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And I loathe Poison Ivy, and it’s native! There’s probably some invasives I’d prefer to it. :laughing:

I remember a while back a few articles suggested Ashe juniper was an invasive, and that we should just eradicate it in Texas & be free from Cedar Fever forever…Except it’s not; it’s native too.

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Well, you can have invasive native species. It just happens that most invasives are non-native to the areas where they are invasive.

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If you browse the noxious weed list of many American cities, you’ll see Solanum elaeagnifolium, which is both native and annoyingly thorny in lawns. Just one example :slightly_smiling_face:

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Oh, definitely, but that wasn’t the point those articles were making. They definitely meant invasive as “non-native”.

From https://reportingtexas.com/ecologist-challenges-the-myths-behind-cedar-texas-most-hated-tree/ , here’s a quote from an ecologist who had to refute the claim:

The mountain cedar in question is actually juniperus ashei, or the Ashe juniper, which is native to Central Texas, though even that fact has been debated. Twenty years ago, McGreevy saw that the City of Austin’s Environmental Criteria Manual listed the mountain cedar among non-native species in Texas. Every developer, real estate agent and landscape architect sees this list, which describes certain trees in the Hill Country and, until recently, was dead wrong about cedar.
“They’ve been here since the last Ice Age,” says McGreevy. “They’re very native, much more than we are.”
When she called the city to report this error with evidence to refute it, McGreevy recalls the city’s response: “We know they’re native. We just don’t want anyone to think they are.”

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Just read that American Copper butterfly lays eggs on curly dock. Some people might plant it for them now.

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I just saw this topic now. Although Rumex crispus is considered a nuisance by farmers also on my side of the Atlantic, it is neither ugly nor useless. It can be eaten by humans, is used for several ailments, and (and this is what counts for me) it is essential for the survival of several insects that depend on it for their larvae. That’s why I leave it growing in my yard, along with its relative, Rumex obtusifolius, and deliberately DO NOT MOW MORE THAN ONCE A YEAR (not yelling, just pointing out that mowing too frequently, or worse, even constantly with those awful robots, impoverishes biodiversity, leading to fewer insects and fewer birds, and ultimately less impollination, which should also ring a bell with farmers).
Anyway, here are a couple of shots of Rumex crispus in a wheat field in northern Italy:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/124079723
And frankly, I find Rumex flowers really attractive – just get close enough:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/118545545

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Like @marigoldjoy, I find Ailanthus altissima a beautiful tree. The problem with it is, as you say, it is so awfully invasive and grows and expands so fast that it manages to kill off the local trees. Acer monspessolanum, Ostrya carpinifolia, Quercus pubescens are all much slower and stand no chance against this one. You can literally watch it produce suckers! Moreover, just like walnut trees, it produces a substance that inhibits the growth of other plants. I’ve seen one tree along an unpaved country road transform into nearly 400 square meters of Ailanthus monoculture that pushed back the indigenous vegetation. I knew it wouldn’t make much of a difference, but every time I went past there I ripped out what I could of the younger shoots. In addition, the seeds are also dispersed by the wind. I recall the first time I became aware of this species – in one of the pots on my balcony (fifth floor apartment in the middle of the city) suddenly there was this lovely, beautifully symmetric plant. When it had reached a height of about a metre, I showed it to a friend, and they enlightened me as to what it was. Just imagine… 5th floor. In a place where the municipality has been fighting this species for decades.

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