Multiflora Rose © James H. Miller, USDA Forest Service, Bugwood.org
Guest post by Michele S. Byers, Executive Director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation
[Editor's note: this article originally appeared in the NJ Conservation Foundation newsletter. I am very grateful for their permission to reprint it here, because it fits so nicely into our "Most Hated Plants" feature].
Mother Nature can be a capricious mistress. In recent years, we’ve seen an unexplained devastation of bat and bee populations. We’ve also witnessed the successful return of the eastern bluebird after years of decline due to competition from non-native birds. But a new blight attacking the non-native multiflora rose has the potential to wipe out this aggressive and invasive rose, and, in the process, help our native plants.
Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) is one of the most prominent invasive plants in this state. It was imported from Japan in 1866 as a rootstock for ornamental roses, and was later planted for erosion control, highway crash barriers, bird habitat, and hedgerows. As a classic “exotic invasive”, however, it wasn’t long before the rose grew densely enough to crowd out native species all over the U.S. countryside.
Invasive plants are one of the biggest threats to the Garden State’s biodiversity. They easily out-compete native plants and take advantage of our state of affairs: forests fragmented by sprawl development and weakened by over-browsing from too many deer. Deer eat up the native forest understory, clearing the way for invasives which they don’t eat.
According to the 2004 N.J. Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) report An Overview of Nonindigenous Plant Species in New Jersey, we host around 1,300 species of non-indigenous plants, enough to put us among the top five states with the most invasive species. In addition to multiflora rose, some of New Jersey’s top invaders are purple loosestrife (lythrum salicaria), common reed (phragmites australis), autumn olive (elaeagnus umbellate) and Japanese stiltgrass.
Invasive species cause significant and sometimes irreversible damage and cost millions of dollars in economic losses. A 1999 Cornell University study pegged agricultural losses from lower crop yields and invasive control expenses in the United States at more than $30 billion dollars per year.
Government agencies spend billions to control or eliminate invasives with very little to show for it, at least compared to the scope of the problem. But now, Mother Nature has come up with her own weapon against multiflora rose in the form of a virus called Rose Rosette Disease. It is not surprising since our plants and animals are constantly evolving in relationship to one another. When one species becomes abundant, another often rises up to out-compete, attack or otherwise interact with an unexplained outcome.
In the case of multiflora rose, its attacking disease produces rapid elongation of new shoots, then development of “witches’ brooms” (clusters of small branches) with small, distorted leaves that may have a conspicuous red pigmentation. Infected rose plants often die within one to two years. Ironically, in some infected areas, land stewards are leaving the dead multiflora rose bushes in place because they now provide shelter for the young shoots of the native species they once choked out. Learn more about Rose Rosette Disease at the Virginia Cooperative Extension website.
We can spend billions on eradicating various invasives, sometimes with the same result as using a slotted spoon to empty the ocean! It’s a reminder that, for all our human intelligence and creativity, we need Mother Nature’s help to address problems of our own making.
If you would like more information about conserving New Jersey’s precious land and natural resources please consult New Jersey Conservation Foundation’s website, check out the Facebook Page, or follow @conservenj on twitter.
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© 2010, Carole Sevilla Brown. All rights reserved. This article is the property of EcosystemGardening.com If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Carole Sevilla Brown
We are constantly battling multiflora rose in our fields here is Massachusetts.
commonweeder recently posted..Bloom Day September 2010
It’s a constant headache for me, too.
Here in Alabama, a rose cousin commonly known as Cherokee rose (R. laevigatais) one of several invasive rose species that we battle. Rosa multiflora is also a problem as is Macartney rose (R. bracteata). Cherokee and McCartney rose are evergreen. Link to cherokee rose’s threat to eastern forests
http://threatsummary.forestthreats.org/threats/threatSummaryViewer.cfm?threatID=163
backyard wisdom recently posted..Wordless Wednesday- Seen on A Recent Forest Hike
Wow, invasive roses times 3, doesn’t sound like a lot of fun at all.
Even more ironic is that Cherokee rose is the state flower of Georgia. My late father spent years mowing and spraying it to remove it from our cow pastures in west central Georgia.
backyard wisdom recently posted..Wordless Wednesday- Seen on A Recent Forest Hike
This is interesting…I am heartened to hear about a natural virus that may eventually control this terribly invasive non-native weed that chokes out wetlands in New England…but I worry about the impact of this disease on our native wild roses such as Virginia and Swamp Rose, both of which are still hanging on despite the influx of invasives…
Ellen Sousa recently posted..Small Habitat Gardens of Worcester MA West
So far this disease is not impacting our native roses, only cultivated ornamentals, especially multiflora rose. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way!
However, there is another side to this…after our devastatingly hot summer, we came home from a missions trip to find all the above-described symptoms on many of our cultivated roses. I just learned today about rose rosette disease, and that the best “cure” at this time is to completely remove and preferably burn the infected bush, all roots included. Apparently this devastation is spreading quickly to our area, especially after this summer’s heat caused an explosion in the mite population that transmits this fatal disease. I shudder when I hear dead infected multiflora are being left in place. Please be aware as we dance on the graves of the hated, invasive multiflora rose, our neighbors are mourning at the pyres of their cherished, cultivated roses.