Chameleon Plant: A Rant

 

Happy Wednesday!

Welcome to my weed rant.  What's yours?

For me the plant I despise is commonly called the Chameleon plant or houttuynia cordata.  It should be called the kudzu of the north.  

My mom has it in her garden.  Technically it is considered a groundcover.  I don't know if she bought it or it just spread there via wildlife or seed.  She can't remember but she says she likes it.

It smells like lime when you weed it out.  I don't like the scent of lime 😝  I'm not the only who hates the scent.  In Asia where the plant originated it has names that translate to "fish stinking herb" and "lettuce (smelling like fish)".  

But it takes over everywhere it is located.  It spreads via underground roots and by seed.  Although I weed and weed it, I can't seem to get all the roots.  Turns out, I'm not the only gardener with this problem.  There is a whole website dedicated to the eradication of this plant here. 

And don't tell me about chemicals.  I don't want them in my garden and as it turns out, they don't work.  Purdue University did a study of the effectiveness of herbicides like Round Up on this plant and guess what?  The cat chameleon plant came back.  The most effective method is digging up the whole garden and going through the soil to get rhizomes and roots.  Burn the lot (not kidding) and do it the next season and the next season and so on.

Around my mother's pond

I never planted this but I'm sure the dogs got seeds in their curly hair and here we are.  It is everywhere in the garden (most likely via wildlife transplanting the seeds).  

I dug out half of one bed this past spring in an effort to eradicate it.  I covered my cleaned out soil with cardboard and mulch.  I may just let that all set for a year or two to see if it does the job.

So do you have a plant that drives you nuts?  Please share!

Have a safe and happy day!