Potentially invasive plant overruns Lynežeris dune

A potentially invasive non-native plant has spread rapidly across Lynežeris dune in Dzūkija National Park, threatening recovering bird and plant habitats, LRT reported.

About 30 park employees and volunteers have begun removing American fleabane, also known as ugniažolė. “I live in Germany and am currently visiting my mother. I came to help with my mother. She is picking mushrooms, while I am collecting rubbish instead of mushrooms,” volunteer Agnė Kaldara said.

There were only one or two plants last year. They now cover the slopes of the protected dune.

Experts say the dune must be protected because the plants could overwhelm recovering heather and sandy grassland habitats. Trees were cut down and the forest floor was burned last year to help restore the dune and bird habitats.

“We are in the Alkūnės kampas geomorphological reserve, and this dune is a model of parabolic continental dunes. The controlled burning of the forest floor is an experiment to see what happens after the burning,” Dzūkija National Park director Eimutis Gudelevičius said.

The plant emerges after fires and colonises open or disturbed areas like a weed, said park biologist Jurga Stoškutė. Its rapid spread was unexpected, she said, adding that its seeds have tufts that allow them to travel easily.

According to the national park’s botanists, the plant is little known in Lithuania. It originated in the United States and is also widespread in Europe, particularly neighbouring Poland. The plants produce millions of seeds, but it is not known how long the seeds remain viable.

“It can fly somewhere, and it probably flew here too, perhaps even across the Atlantic. We do not know of anyone bringing it here,” park ecologist and botanist Onutė Grigaitė said.

No studies have been conducted in Lithuania on how to eradicate the potentially invasive plant, so specialists are experimenting. They believe the seeds may die during decomposition.

Grigaitė said she was cutting off the flower heads and putting them in bags to burn or allow them to decompose. Another method is to pull out the plants with their flower heads and compost the entire mass.

Specialists say the plants are annuals but spread their seeds very quickly, making complete eradication unlikely.