I recently attended a Santa Ana River Orange County Weed Management Area (SAROCWMA) meeting and there was an opportunity for participants to update the group about new invasive plants as well as give an update on management of these and others. During the discussion, Ron Vanderhoff from the Orange County Native Plant Society (OC-CNPS), reported new findings of a plant I'd never heard of. In fact, when the group was talking about it, I wasn't sure if I heard the name right.

The plant is called stinknet (Oncosiphon piluliferum), which to me sounds like a game played by 10 year olds. However, the California Invasive Plant Council considers it an emerging invasive weed...

Snails and slugs can be destructive pests in gardens and landscapes when they devour entire seedlings or chew holes in leaves, flowers, fruit, and even the bark of plants.

Manage these pests by getting rid of their hiding places, setting up traps, or planting resistant plants.

For more information about effective ways to manage snails and slugs, read the newly revised Pest Notes: Snails and Slugs by Cheryl Wilen, Area IPM Advisor, San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles counties; and Mary Louise Flint, Extension Entomologist Emerita, UC Davis and UC IPM.

Invasive plants—plants that can disperse, establish, and spread without human assistance or disturbance—pose a serious problem in California's waterways, wildlands and rangelands. Common garden weeds, unlike invasive plants, don't generally thrive outside of cultivation.

About 1,500 non-native plant species are currently established in California, mostly in wildlands. Almost two thirds were intentionally introduced as ornamentals from the nursery industry, or for the purposes of soil stabilization, animal forage, human food, fiber or medicinal plants.

Invasive plants originally introduced as desirable ornamentals include pampasgrass, big periwinkle, and water hyacinth. Dyer's woad was once a valuable dye...