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Bedford, Pound Ridge Events Battle Invasive Plant Species

POUND RIDGE, N.Y. – What’s green, barbed and can destroy nearly everything in its path?

Mile-a-Minute is an invasive vine that can smother nearly everything in its path.

Mile-a-Minute is an invasive vine that can smother nearly everything in its path.

Photo Credit: Wikimedia

No, it’s not the latest superhero to emerge from Comic Con; in fact, most folks would see it as a supervillain, botanically speaking, that is.

Mile-a-Minute, or Persicaria perfoliata, is an aggressive vine that landed in this country in 1930 in a batch of contaminated holly seed, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension’s website on invasive species.

Native to India and Eastern Asia, its ground zero was York County, Pa., Cornell said. As of 2011, it has been found in all the Mid-Atlantic states, southern New England, North Carolina, Ohio and Oregon. In New York, it is found mostly, Cornell said, in counties south of the northern Connecticut border.

Mile-a-Minute, which can grow up to 6 inches a day, kills herbaceous plants, shrubs and trees by overtaking, smothering and physically damaging them.

The public is invited to help battle the vile weed this weekend at free events marking Invasive Species Week.

The first is being sponsored by the lower Hudson Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management.

PRISM volunteers will be on hand from 9 a.m.-noon Saturday in Bedford to talk about managing invasive species. Folks will gather at the Mianus River Gorge parking area, across from 167 Mianus River Road.

For more information, go to www.lhprism.org.

And on Sunday, July 19, volunteers from the Westchester Land Trust and the NY/NJ Trails Conference will be tackling invasives at the Westchester Wilderness Walk/Zofnass Family Preserve in Pound Ridge.

This event runs from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. The group is meeting at the main entrance on Upper Shad Road.

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