<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:st1="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=us-ascii">
<meta name=Generator content="Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]--><o:SmartTagType
namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="country-region"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceType"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="PlaceName"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="State"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="City"/>
<o:SmartTagType namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags"
name="place"/>
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
st1\:*{behavior:url(#default#ieooui) }
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
{margin:0in;
margin-bottom:.0001pt;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
h1
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:24.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold;}
h3
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:13.5pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";
font-weight:bold;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
{color:blue;
text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
{color:purple;
text-decoration:underline;}
p
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
span.EmailStyle17
{mso-style-type:personal-compose;
font-family:Arial;
color:windowtext;}
p.byline, li.byline, div.byline
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
p.date, li.date, div.date
{mso-margin-top-alt:auto;
margin-right:0in;
mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
margin-left:0in;
font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman";}
@page Section1
{size:8.5in 11.0in;
margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
</head>
<body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple>
<div class=Section1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/HOEPUKTTJ.DTL">http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/HOEPUKTTJ.DTL</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h1><b><font size=6 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:24.0pt'>Yellow
starthistle menaces flora, fauna<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=byline><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Ron Sullivan, Joe Eaton<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=date><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Wednesday,
January 30, 2008<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/HOEPUKTTJ.DTL&o=0&type=printable"><span
style='text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=64 height=64 id="_x0000_i1025"
src="cid:image001.gif@01C86326.5D592710" vspace=1
alt="The yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis is a menac..."></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'><span
id=articlebody>When you recognize yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis,
and you learn its history and effects, you can scare yourself half to death
driving down Interstate 5 in early summer. Those little yellow flowers blanket
miles of fields.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This pest
is familiar along roadsides and "disturbed places" churned up by
plow, bulldozer or cattle. It has few natural consumers or enemies and it seeds
profusely - a large plant can produce nearly 75,000 seeds. Its long spines are
wicked and puncture the eyes and noses of grazers and the skin of hikers. It's
pure hell to extirpate. Starthistle doesn't like deserts, the coast or anywhere
above 7,000 feet, but the rest of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
suits it just fine.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>The
barbed seeds hitchhike in loads of hay and on the undercarriages of vehicles.
For short-distance transport, they also attach to fur, hair and clothing.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It pushes
out native plants and sucks the moisture out of grassland soil. It lowers the
yield and forage quality of rangelands; though sheep, goats and cattle will eat
it in its young pre-spiny stage, it doesn't approach the nutritional value of
the grasses and other plants that it replaces as it matures. It contaminates
dried hay stocks. Worst is the effect on horses, in whom long-term starthistle
consumption leads to a neurological disorder called nigropallidal
encephalomalacia, or chewing disease. An afflicted horse develops brain
lesions, manifested by involuntary chewing, lip-twitching and tongue flicking,
and may starve. It sounds like an extremely unpleasant way to go.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It's not
good for much, ecologically and biologically speaking, except that honeybees
like it and make it into sweet, neutral honey. Making the best of a bad thing
sounds good.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>But
there's a downside to the honeybee-starthistle partnership, if you don't want
pastures and meadows full of toxic thistle. A group of entomologists - John
Barthell and Robbin Thorp from UC Davis, Adrian Wenner from UC Santa Barbara
and John Randall of the Nature Conservancy - measured the relative
effectiveness of honeybees versus native bees as starthistle pollinators. At
three <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State>
sites, they used mesh to exclude honeybees from starthistle patches but let
native bees in. The honeybee-less thistles had lower than normal seed set;
honeybee pollination approximately doubled seed production. Barthell and his
colleagues dubbed the starthistle and the honeybee "invasive
mutualists" - <st1:place w:st="on">Old World</st1:place> allies picking up
their relationship to the benefit of both in a new setting.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Yellow
starthistle probably got here from its native southern Europe by way of <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Chile</st1:country-region>, contaminating alfalfa seed, around the
time of the Gold Rush; the first confirmed record is from <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Oakland</st1:place></st1:City> in 1869. Later introductions came
from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Argentina</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Italy</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">France</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Spain</st1:country-region> and <st1:place w:st="on">Turkestan</st1:place>,
whatever that is now. By World War I the plant was all over the <st1:place
w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Sacramento</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType></st1:place>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It had
seized a million acres in the late 1950s, 8 million in 1985, 12 million by the
mid-1990s. The <st1:PlaceName w:st="on">San Joaquin</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType
w:st="on">Valley</st1:PlaceType>, the <st1:place w:st="on">North Coast ranges</st1:place>
and the Sierra foothills were overrun.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>So people
familiar with starthistle were both amused and rankled when, early in January,
Forest Service ranger Anne Yost forwarded the following to the California
Invasive Plants Council's e-mail list:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Yellow
Star Thistle Honey comes from an increasingly rare <st1:place w:st="on">Northern
California</st1:place> wildflower. Not so long ago, the small yellow, fuzzy
flowers dotted roadsides and fields, familiar to all who drove through the
countryside. Now, as the population grows and demands of agribusiness increase,
Yellow Star Thistle has been almost obliterated! Beekeepers ... vie for hive
locations in the last densely flowered areas."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>That was
from the Moon Shine Trading Co.'s Web site. The same words had been appearing
on its labels for a decade or so. It suddenly changed to a truncated version
when a squad of CalIPC mailing-list readers (disclaimer: including Ron) sent
angry, sarcastic or educational e-mails to the company: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Yellow
Star Thistle Honey comes from a vibrant wildflower growing throughout <st1:place
w:st="on">Northern California</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>"Not
so long ago, the small yellow, fuzzy flowers dotted roadsides and fields,
familiar to all who drove through the countryside." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>It's
still a stretch to call starthistle a wildflower, though there is nostalgia for
flowers dotting fields: Now starthistle blankets those fields instead.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Dr.
Joseph Di Tomaso of UC Davis' Weed Science Program had used that label copy 10
years ago to ask jokingly for a promotion: "I had just started most of these
multiyear [starthistle eradication] projects. That is what made it so funny.
Only three years and I nearly eradicated the plant, according to the label. Of
course, I told the faculty that they were not allowed to go outside during the
summer, lest they find out that the honey ad may not be accurate."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>He adds,
"The craziest thing about this is that the labels seem to come from a
company in Winters, Calif. Winters is just west of <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Davis</st1:place></st1:City> and is in the center of YST territory.
You could hardly walk out of the printing shop without bumping into YST." <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>Another
mailing list member, Forest Service research plant ecologist Jan Beyers, had a
different approach: "I asked them to please look for a truly native
substitute to produce and promote instead." This sounds constructive.
Honey lovers among us might well seek out the products of our unique native
flora. There are aspects of terroir we have yet to explore. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:13.5pt'>Resources
<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h3>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>-- UC
Davis Yellow Starthistle home page: <em><i><font face="Times New Roman"><a
href="http://wric.ucdavis.edu/yst/yst.html">wric.ucdavis.edu/yst/yst.html</a>.</font></i></em><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>-- <st1:State
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place></st1:State> Invasive
Plants Council: <em><i><font face="Times New Roman"><a
href="http://www.cal-ipc.org">www.cal-ipc.org</a>.</font></i></em><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><i><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-style:italic'>Joe Eaton and Ron Sullivan are freelance nature and garden
writers in <st1:City w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Berkeley</st1:place></st1:City>.
E-mail them at <a href="mailto:home@sfchronicle.com">home@sfchronicle.com</a>.</span></font></i>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</span>
<p id=url><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/HOEPUKTTJ.DTL<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p id=pageno><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>This
article appeared on page <strong><b><font face="Times New Roman">G - 3</font></b></strong>
of the San Francisco Chronicle<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
</div>
</body>
</html>