A Guide to Air ( bulbifera)

How Can I Control Air An Invasive Species Potato? (Continued) Triclopyr products, such as Brush-B-Gon®, and glyphosate products, such as Roundup® and Rodeo® (labeled for aquatic areas), are available in local garden and hardware stores. Always use herbicides according to the label. Remember: The label is the law!

For more information on invasive species: http://www.floridainvasives.org/

The printing of this publication is made possible through a grant from FLEPPC’s Kathy Craddock Burks Education and Outreach Grants.

air potato collection Photo by Sherry Williams Seminole County Leisure Services • Greenways & Natural Lands

Leisure Services Department Greenways & Natural Lands

Leisure Services Department Greenways & Natural Lands A Guide to Air Potato (Dioscorea bulbifera) An Invasive Plant Species Description: Why Should I Be Concerned? Air potato is an invasive • Invasive species cost Floridians more than $500 in Florida, consisting million each year; the state spends more than of large, green, heart- $50 million annually just to manage exotic weeds shaped leaves. It can from our fields, pastures, canals, ponds, lakes, quickly grow 60-70 feet rivers and natural areas. And the economic costs in length, which is long are small potatoes compared to the ecological enough to blanket even ones. (Florida Invaders Publication, 2008) the tallest trees like those • Invasive species are one of the leading causes found in hardwood ham- of extinction. mocks. As a member of the family, air potato produces large numbers How Can I Control Air Potato? • Hand pull or disconnect vine-stems to prevent of aerial (potato- aerial “potato” like growths attached to production; every the stem) that can grow “potato” is a po- into new stems. tential new plant. • Dig up under- Impacts of Air Potato: ground tubers • Is a non-native, exotic plant (from tropical Asia, or germinating Africa) without native insects or diseases to “potatoes.” Place keep its growth in check them in a black • Disrupts native plant communities by forming plastic bag until impenetrable on native trees and shading they have degraded and place in regular, not out understory vegetation yard, trash. • Negatively • Continue to hand pull sprouting vines to impacts wildlife deplete the food reserves of germinated dependent on “potatoes.” native vegetation • If aerial “potatoes” have already formed, hand for forage, nest- pick and place them in a black plastic bag until ing, and cover they have degraded. • Herbicides can be used, according to label • Interferes with directions, to treat the vines by either spraying ecosystem the leaves directly or cutting the vine near the integrity by ground and spraying the remaining stem. threatening biodiversity and ecosystem stability in natural areas. (See back for more information)