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

Dr. Tom Lanini was made a Fellow of the Western Society of Weed Science (WSWS) in March 2013 at the annual meeting in San Diego. Tom is a Cooperative Extension Weed Ecologist in the Department of Plant Sciences at the University of California, Davis.

Sahara mustard, a resilient weed native to North Africa and the Mediterranean, is invading desert landscapes in the American Southwest, squeezing out beautiful wildflower displays that attract tourists and maintain the local ecology, reported the San Diego Union Tribune.

This is part of a talk I gave last week in Marin County. These three annual thistles turn up everywhere in northern California, so it's nice to know them by name. They're mostly on disturbed sites, roadsides, and waste ground, but they can also establish on rangeland, pasture, and natural areas.

Herbicides are defined as a chemical substance that is used to eliminate unwanted plants.

In the United States, only species listed on state or federal noxious weed lists are regulated. According to our analysis, these regulatory lists poorly represent invasive plants in unmanaged (i.e., nonagricultural) systems.