An invasive plant that has long caused problems in eastern states has been found in Michigan. Now state officials are trying to find out if it’s growing anywhere besides an Albion College nature preserve, where a professor spotted it last month.
The plant grows so fast – as much as a foot in two days – that it’s known as “mile-a-minute weed.” Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development Invasive Species Specialist Susannah Iott said the vine has barbs, triangular leaves and a distinctive blue fruit.
Mile-a-minute weed grows into thickets and can smother other plants including trees, “which is why it’s a concern for nurseries and Christmas tree farms and orchards and disturbed open areas,” she said.
Iott said mile-a-minute-weed can be hard to eradicate, partly because its seeds last for years. “If the plant’s already set seed and it’s in the ground you have to keep going back there for up to six years to look, and once it germinates it grows really, really fast,” she said.
Iott added she’s hopeful the patch in Albion can be wiped
out. She said the state is trying to figure out if mile-a-minute weed is growing elsewhere in Michigan.
“It’s something that we definitely want everyone to be on the lookout for and report if they find it, and report if they think they find it,” Iott said, adding the state would rather investigate false positives than miss a true case.