Willows the Wetland Menace

Willows, the wetland menace

Willows are a menace when they invade waterways and wetlands, taking over huge areas of native vegetation and drying out the land by raising the water levels. They cause a huge mess when they fall over and block streams.

There are many species of willows in NZ but they all share some similar characteristics .

They were introduced from Europe because they grow so fast and in such unflattering inhospitable situations, which is precisely why they are the problem they have become.

The NZ Plant Conservation Network site lists 13 species. See the link here

Landcare have a key for identification here. This key is illustrated with more than 2000 images of willow species and hybrids that are either wild or in cultivation in New Zealand.

So, it’s not easy to know which willow you have. But, its good to know that you can kill them all with a similar range of techniques.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council has a good article on growing and managing willows. But that’s not what we want. We want to kill them.

This article has a lot of really good advice about managing and controlling willows. Pages 18 and 19 give advice of using Glyphosate Gels. This is an extremely well written article with lots of good information.

It is inadvisable to use anything other than one of our glyphosate-based gel in a wetland situation because of the risk of poisoning other plants in the wet ground. Our glyphosate gels are ideal and we would recommend Bamboo Buster in the first instance or Glimax for something stronger if you prefer.

IT IS VITAL that you paste both ends of anything you cut off and where possible suspect cut offs above the ground to prevent rerooting of the off cuts.

Don’t ever underestimate how much work there is in getting willows under control and never plant them without a thorough understanding of the consequences. Willows and Alders are very similar and can be treated in the same way.