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Eleagnus – The Climbing Nightmare
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Eleagnus is - The Climbing Nightmare
If I had to describe one of the nastiest climber weeds to deal with it would be Eleagnus - The Climbing Nightmare. Older branches have spines over 3cm in length that can easily tear your skin and they scramble and climb 10m up to the tops of trees using these hooks as crampons. And then you have to try to get rid of it !
Elaeagnus reflexa is well described in this link to the NZ Plant Conservation Network website.
The rather brownish green colour of the leaves makes is easy to spot. It has a straggling unkempt appearance with the long curving branches that spread out in an attempt to catch onto something to climb up.
It’s saving grace is that it is intolerant of frost and poor drainage, but tolerant to drought and partly tolerant to shade.
But, seedlings are tolerant of partial shade. It requires medium to high soil fertility. It is perennial and very long-lived, probably to over a century (Fromont and King, 1992). The plant self-seeds and is dispersed by birds and vertebrate animals.
Treat it with caution, it bites. It can be very hard to find the base of the plant, but it’s worth the effort as cutting it off at it’s base and treating the stumps with Cut’n’Paste Picloram Gel is easy. The only proviso is take care using a lot of the Picloram Gel as it can be translocated in the soil to neighbouring trees. If you feel there is a real risk of this we advice you use Glimax and add just a little MetGel to the mix on the stump.
Simply make a flat level cut near the base of the truck and immediately cover the whole area of the stump with a 3- 5mm layer of gel.
It bites and is extremely difficult to fight your way into. Work smart and find an easy way in from the back.
