Saturday, July 18, 2015

Our Vineyard Has Heart

On my bug patrol again. The Japanese beetles are beginning to come out in swarms. In my walk through the vineyard, I came upon this weed. From far, it just seems like an ordinary yellow weed, but, IMHO kind of pretty, so I took a picture of it.
A search on the Internet turned up "Sulfur Cinquefoil" or Latin Potentilla recta as the identification of this weed. It may be pretty, but I did learn that it has a high tannin content and is unpalatable to most wildlife and livestock. Mowing will not reduce the population of Sulfur Cinquefoil, but so far, we don't see too many of these weeds in our vineyard. We might have to resort to hand pulling, grubbing, and hoeing to reduce our small population of sulfur cinquefoil. But, while we have it, I found it interesting to zoom in on one petal since it looked very much like a heart.
Soon, it will be time to mow the vineyard alleys with our Ferri mower again, so I thought that I should take some photos of the weeds that are growing in the vineyard.
My friend said, "Who determined what is a weed anyway?"
Reference:
1. Problem Weeds Guide published by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources Coastal Management Program.

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