Pasture Weed Watch BROUGHT TO YOU BY FUMITORY FUMARIA MURALIS Why is it a weed? It competes with plants for sunlight and nutrients and can cause severe lodging* in certain crops. Where is it found? All over New Zealand. Is it toxic? Wikimedia Commons Martin Javier Photo: Possibly. Reports are sketchy at best but it does contain a number of alkaloids that would be toxic in overdose. Alternative Uses? The word fumitory has Has some uses as a herbal an interesting Latin root medicine, but be careful – see – it means ‘smoke of the above! earth’. I’m not sure why it got that name – it may be because of its tendency to choke out other plants. If anyone does know why, let me know! MILTON MUNRO Photo: BidgeeWikimedia Commons umitory is a particularly nasty It is used in a number of herbal sucker. In fact I would go so far as medicines but you should be careful How to control it to say it is one weed I really detest. with it as it contains a number of nasty Controlling fumitory is easy in a garden F In the early years of my career alkaloids that can have toxic side effects. but somewhat difficult in a crop. Its I spent a lot of time walking the cereal Fumitory is relatively straight-forward weak stem makes fumitory very easy crops of North Otago. This weed was the to identify. The first giveaway clue is to extract by hand – pulling is easy, bane of their paddocks, climbing up the its stem. It has a weak fleshy stem that effective and very satisfying. It can also crops and dragging (lodging)* them down cannot support the weight of the plant. be controlled with the use of glyphosate. to the ground. It creeps along the ground until it finds In a cereal or pasture, fumitory Fumitory is an annual weed found another plant it can climb up and sprawl control can be more problematic. It is commonly all over New Zealand. It’s all over. This is what causes the damage in resistant to a number of chemicals but originally native to Europe but has spread cereal crops and it’s this sprawling weed in a pinch MCPA does a good job of all around the globe and is pretty much mass that causes the crop to fall over, controlling fumitory when the plants are found everywhere. making harvesting very difficult. small. However, remember that MCPA Fumitory is a member of the Initially it produces three small pale will be very hard on your clover. Papaveraceae or poppy family, but the green leaflets at branching points along Keep the emails coming – I love to name actually applies to over 40 different the stem. These leaves soon become hear from you all! n species of plant. The best known is single leaflets as the plant grows. Fumaria muralis or scrambling fumitory. The flowers of fumitory are very distinctive. They produce about a dozen DO YOU NEED HELP WITH white/pink florets with a distinctive purple A WEED PROBLEM? MILTON MUNRO is a soil and plant colouring at the end of them. If anyone has a request for a scientist for rural supply company Fumitory is a particularly aggressive particular weed they would like PGG Wrightson. He looks at common seeder, producing many seeds with very to know more about please don’t pasture weeds you’ll find on your high viability and longevity in the soil. If hesitate to let Milton know: block and how to deal with them. fumitory is allowed to seed in a paddock [email protected] then you are stuck with it for a long time. www.nzlifestyleblock.co.nz 33 Pasture weed watch_nov14.indd 33 5/10/14 8:45 pm.