Fort Thomas resident Katie Beck spoke up at the March city council meeting to sound the alarm about a pretty yellow flower blooming behind the Mess Hall and other areas of Tower Park in the city.
It is indeed a pretty plant and among the first signs of spring. However, Beck warned, the sweet yellow blooms of the lesser celandine plant, a relative of the buttercup, don’t belong here. In fact, the invasive species, brought to the continent from Europe and other parts of the world, is taking over whole swaths of the country and crowding out native wildflowers and other plants.
A growing threat
Beck spoke on behalf of her husband, Leonard Beck, an environmental sciences teacher at Boone County High School, who also serves as an adjunct environmental instructor at Thomas More University.
Leonard Beck was unable to attend the meeting, but later explained his concerns. The plant grows thick along the trail that runs through Tower Park behind the Mess Hall and the recently renovated military homes, he said.
“I noticed it maybe four years ago in a small patch, it wasn’t very big, but then it’s expanded quite a bit over the last couple of years. Last year, it covered quite a bit of that side of the park, especially along the road that goes back there,” he said.
“I’ve been trying to get people to be more aware of it and hopefully to get some momentum to get it taken care of it before it continues to spread to other parts of the park.”
Beck said the situation has become urgent, and he fears for what it may do to native plants in the park. “It’s a really great place, and we are very fortunate to have this park in Fort Thomas. I’m concerned this invasive plant is spreading and will eventually crowd out all the native plants and spring wildflowers back there,” he said.
Blocking out the sun
“You normally have a flower called cutleaf toothwort, blood root and some other flowers back there that would be coming up, but lesser celandine grows so thick it doesn’t allow light from the sun to come through.”
That’s an issue because the insects — the bees, beetles and other pollinators — are adapted to and rely on native plants as food sources. They evolved along with the native plants, something called co-evolution, Beck explained. The pollinators are not adapted to lesser celandine and so when the thick plant overtakes the native wildflowers, these useful insects will leave the area.
Beck explained one reason the lesser celandine has an advantage over native plants in the battle for space. “One of the things that is interesting with invasive plants, and you can see this with honeysuckle, is they leaf out and start to photosynthesize earlier in the year.”
The lesser celandine also comes out thicker, blocking the sun so native plants cannot grow, he said. The plant is spreading throughout the park and could even encroach on private yards on nearby streets.
As far as invasive plants go, lesser celandine is newer to our region, Beck noted. He said in Cincinnati’s California Woods, staff have been fighting it for a few years. “I haven’t been up there this year, but last year I know they were flagging it in places and were going to try to tackle it.”
Eradication is challenging
Eradicating the fast-growing plant is not an easy task, he said. For small patches, a few plants can be ripped out by hand. Yet, due to the structure of lesser celandine, this could actually make matters worse if people are not careful.
Like onions, lilies and some other plants, lesser celandine does not have to rely on seeds alone to reproduce. The plant also has what is known as bulbils, nodules that grow on the plant that can fall off and start new plants. In lesser celandine these bulbils grow near the roots so when they are pulled out and transported, it is important to ensure none of the bulbils fall off and start the plant again in a new spot.
Pulling is not a option for larger patches, said Beck. One method has been to put a tarp over the area to block the sun so the plants can’t photosynthesize. Some areas of Cincinnati have been trying this, but the verdict is still out.
“It may need some chemical control,” said Beck. “There’s probably a timing issue where you want to do that when you can just hit the lesser celandine and not hit the native plants that are coming up later.”
The time is now
Beck said he hopes the city will listen and act quickly. Council members and Mayor Eric Haas thanked the Becks for bringing the issue to the city’s attention, and said it is definitely now on the city’s radar.
The best course of action, said Beck, is for the city to reach out to the University of Kentucky Extension office or local groups who have been involved in invasive species removal.
“I think the point is to get someone who really knows what they are doing to get rid of it. It’s probably going to take a little bit of time, not just one year, and hopefully do as little damage as possible to the other plants back there,” he said.
“I’ve had some emails from council members with questions. They do seem receptive. We just have to get educated and get moving on it…We really are lucky to have the parks that we do right in the middle of town…We must protect them going forward for future generations.”
