The Enemy

Sometimes I find it difficult to accept that such a beautiful plant like the multiflora rose really is an invasive enemy. The plant is everywhere this year at Roundtop, and eradicating it looks to be an impossibility. Anyplace that isn’t deep forest is vulnerable to its attack. Even a small clearing created by the natural fall of a moderately sized tree lets enough sunlight into the woods that the plant is likely to spring up there.

On my morning walk with Dog today I counted 23 different clumps of it, some quite small, others huge and overflowing thickets of blooms. I have no idea what the solution to this one is. I have neither the time nor the energy to clothe myself in canvas and attempt the pull the plants from the ground myself. Around the mountain are likely hundreds of clumps. And so the roses continue to bloom and spread everywhere on the mountain. Their scent fills the air right now. Lovely and lethal to native plant life without a solution in sight.