Nature's Edge - Garlic Mustard - May 2004

May is a great time to get outside, work in the yard and enjoy nature. It is also a good time to pull Garlic Mustard out of your landscape and the Village natural areas.

Garlic Mustard is an invasive Eurasian plant that takes over our woodland understory. It is a biennial plant which means that it produces leaves the first year, and flowers, sets seed and dies the second year. This plant is a prolific seed producer, and for this reason, it is very important to get rid of it before it can produce a flower and seed. In the first year, it looks like a ground cover with small kidney shaped leaves. The leaves are edged with rounded teeth. It will grow to approximately six inches tall in the first year. In the second year, it is more erect with cross-shaped flowers; alternate leaves which have become more triangular or heart shaped. The leave edge will now be more sharply toothed and elongated. At maturity Garlic Mustard can grow to three feet in height.

The scent of this plant is where it gets its name. An easy way to tell Garlic Mustard Nature’s Edge is to crush a few of the leaves in your hand. As you inhale you will notice a distinct "garlic" smell.

The reason Garlic Mustard is a problem in our woodland is that it produces so many seeds that it only takes one or two plants a few years to fill in an entire woodland. Garlic Mustard has no native predator and it thrives in dry, moist, shade, or sun – most conditions. When attempting to eradicate Garlic Mustard from your landscape, it is important to remove the entire plant. If you pull the plant, be sure to remove the entire root. If you do not, you will have to pull it again when it regrows. (The month of May is a good time because the plants are young and the ground is soft.) You can also herbicide the plant, but you need to be sure to herbicide it before it flowers or the plant will continue to mature and produce seed even after the rest of it has died.

It is not uncommon to see a few plants in the woodland the first year or two and thousands thereafter. If you eradicate it early, you will save yourself and your landscape from a tremendous amount of work and damage.