UC Weed Science (weed control, management, ecology, and minutia)

It's October and it's weeding season! That's not a phrase we regularly hear. In many years in California October can be a month where weeding is a low priority task.

At first glance, Orobanche ramosa looks like an interesting blossoming plant, one that could add a unique flair to flower arrangements. But it's a parasitic weed that attaches to roots, sucks out nutrients and is threatening California's $1.5 billion processing tomato industry.

Summary Review Results from this year's Italian ryegrass (IR) herbicide trials helped quantify differences in herbicide resistance among IR populations within the southern Sacramento Valley. The trial took place in Bird's Landing, CA (near Rio Vista), and was replicated farther north in Esparto, CA.

The Orobanchaceae family comprises 270 holoparasitic species that cannot photosynthesize. Instead, they rely entirely on the host plant roots for nutrition, and can produce great numbers of minute, dust-like seeds that last for years in the soil.

Auto emissions 'fertilize' fuel Joshua trees burning in the Mojave Desert are the victims of changing patterns of wildfire, fueled by the spread of grasses that are not native to the region, restoration ecologist Justin Valliere told media in recent interviews.