Readers of this blog will known that one of our most problematic invasive weeds is the Maltese Star Thistle (Centaurea melitensis), also called Tocalote. Usually we devote May and June workdays to removing Maltese Star Thistles, but last September’s burn seems to have given the Maltese Star Thistles a fertilizer boost, and by early April very large plants were already starting to bloom in the burn area. Consequently, on the April 5 workday volunteers from the Claremont community and students from Harvey Mudd, Citrus, and Mt. San Antonio Colleges pulled Maltese Star Thistles in the area west of the entry drive, where we’ve been removing them for the last two years.
A Maltese Star Thistle coming up among the yellow flowers of Camissoniopsis bistorta in the burned area. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Diana Alami (Mt. Sac) and Citrus College students Danny Lin, Honoka Ishii, and Stephanie Bowler searching for and removing Maltese Star Thistles. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Dean McHenry, Stephanie Bowler (Citrus), Diana Alami (Mt. Sac), Danny Lin (Citrus), and Honoka Ishii (Citrus) searching for and removing Maltese Star Thistles. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Volunteers also removed some giantic Black Mustards (Brassica nigra) that were also coming up in the burned area. You can really appreciate their size by comparing them to a six-foot-plus physics professor:
Prof. Richard Haskell (HMC Physics) displays a giant-sized Black Mustard (left) and large Maltese Star Thistle (right) that were pulled in the burn area. ©Nancy Hamlett.
In addition to the large group removing star thistles, a small group of volunteers helped BFS Director Marty Meyer remove all non-native plants that had cropped up in the experimental plots that we established in February.
Marcie Gaebler (HMC), BFS Director Marty Meyer, Christina Cabral (Citrus College) and Mike Tschudi remove weeds from an experimental plot. ©Nancy Hamlett.
Both the work on the experimental plots and the removal of Maltese Star Thistles will continue for the next few workdays, so please join us if you can!