Yellow Starthistle
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Franco Folini from San Francisco.
If you have been a resident of the Tehachapi area for long, you hopefully know to keep your eye out in your yard for that nasty weed with the nice name, yellow starthistle (YST). This is the time of year when it becomes very visible as it begins to get a pretty yellow flower surrounded by some very wicked-looking needles, which neither humans nor animals would want to touch. This weed is particularly bad because it will overtake any area, as it can out-compete any grasses or other growth with its deep roots. It can drink enough water when it is in dense stands that it can threaten our water table in BVS! Northern California is literally covered with it, with about 15 million acres in California! It creates unusable land, and it can be deadly to grazing horses. So there are lots of reasons that we all must keep our eyes out for it and see that it is eradicated properly.
If you find it on your property, the easiest way to eliminate it this time of year is to take a shovel or hoe and cut it off at ground level. If the weed is in flower, you will then have to dispose of it carefully. In BVS you would take it to the CSD's YST burn pit, beside the green waste area. In other areas you would dispose of it by wrapping it carefully for the trash, making sure that the flowers (seed) are contained.
Encourage your community to attack this scourge on our land on a large scale, which is the way we can ultimately control its spread. YST was well controlled ten years ago with a program to identify it and then spray it with Transline, the best herbicide. Chuck McCollough (founder of Triassic Legacy) developed a marvelous program for all of Tehachapi except BVS, which was well controlled by a BVCSD program. Now all of those efforts have been put aside, leaving us with the potential for a complete take over by this terrible weed. Let your community leaders know, this is no way to take care of the Tehachapi area!
