Outdoor Elements
A Sea of Pink and White-Dame's Rocket
Clip | 4m 34sVideo has Closed Captions
Evie takes a closer look at Dame's Rocket, a non-native plant that can crowd out native wi
Those beautiful pink and white flowers blooming along roadsides and trails in May and early June may catch your eye, but looks can be deceiving! In this episode of Outdoor Elements, Evie takes a closer look at Dame's Rocket, a non-native plant that can crowd out native wildflowers and negatively impact local habitats. Often mistaken for Garden Phlox, Dame's Rocket has some ...
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Outdoor Elements is a local public television program presented by PBS Michiana
Outdoor Elements
A Sea of Pink and White-Dame's Rocket
Clip | 4m 34sVideo has Closed Captions
Those beautiful pink and white flowers blooming along roadsides and trails in May and early June may catch your eye, but looks can be deceiving! In this episode of Outdoor Elements, Evie takes a closer look at Dame's Rocket, a non-native plant that can crowd out native wildflowers and negatively impact local habitats. Often mistaken for Garden Phlox, Dame's Rocket has some ...
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipI'm standing in what was once a neighborhood woodlot, but now it has been cleared a couple of years ago, actually, by the landowner in anticipation of building, and it has exploded with a sea of pink and purple and white.
A plant known as Dames Rocket.
Dames rocket is classified as an invasive species.
And like many of our invasive species, it's beautiful.
That's why it was brought here by the Europeans in the 1600s.
And it has a very spicy, intoxicating scent.
At night.
Many people confuse it with a plant you actually may have in your own backyard called Tall Garden phlox.
Very different plants.
Dame's rocket has four petals.
Phlox has five petals, and the leaves and growing structure are very different.
Dame's rocket.
The leaves are jagged or toothed, and the leaves are arranged alternately on the stem, whereas garden phlox.
The leaves are smooth on the edge and the leaves are arranged in opposite fashion.
They also flower at really different times.
The dame's rocket is usually flowering in our southern Great Lakes region in May, sometimes early June, whereas the garden phlox in my garden doesn't even have buds yet.
It won't flower till much later in summer.
Dame's rocket also has these long crazy seed pods containing many, many seeds, and that is why it can be so prolific.
Once this woodlot was cleared, the seed bank, which included seeds from a few small patches of dame's rocket, literally was able to explode and literally create this carpet of Dame's rocket.
So what's the problem?
I would expect an expanse of flowers like this to have lots of pollinators buzzing around feeding on the nectar, but in fact, I've only seen a few insects here.
When we have a non-native plant in our habitat, our native insects have not co-evolved with that plant.
All insects have chemical receptors in their antenna or their feet, and those insects can recognize certain chemicals that they've co-evolved with on plants to know that they're food plants, or places to get pollen, or places to get nectar, or places to lay eggs and have larvae feed on the foliage.
But many of our native insects don't recognize the chemicals in all plants have chemicals that they give off to attract or dispel insects our native insects don't recognize, for the most part, dame's rockets chemicals, so very few pollinators are buzzing here.
I don't really see any leaf chewing, so our insects that might lay eggs on a plant aren't really utilizing this as a larval food source.
So in a sense, this monoculture becomes a pretty much an ecological wasteland.
That's why we're always concerned about invasive plants and how they can consume a habitat, but really create a barren habitat in terms of insects.
And of course, insects feed each other.
There are many insects that feed on other insects.
And then our native songbirds feed on insects, tiny caterpillars, larvae, our toads, our frogs, our fish all feed on insects.
So insects are really an important cornerstone for a healthy habitat.
If you have garden phlox in your backyard, well, kudos to you because it is native in much of our region, so you are helping to create a healthy habitat in your backyard.
Remember, you can find your own outdoor elements when you visit area parks and natural areas.
We'll see you soon.
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