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FEBRUARY | MARCH 2023 • MONTANA SENIOR NEWS HOME & LIFESTYLE 21
Dalmation Toadflax
Lurking in Your Backyard?
county! Think of the revenue from the sale
BY RANDOLPH W. HOBLER of branded pick-axes alone!
But back to dalmatian toadflax. Along
Dear dedicated denizens of Mineral with hounds tongue, ragwort, skeleton
County, Mont.: I know, your top New Year’s weed, Canada thistle, sulphur cinque-
resolution for 2023 is to destroy the scourge foil, purple loosestrife, and 21 others,
of that invasive, aggressive, noxious weed, dalmation toadflax is listed in the Most
dalmatian toadflax, in your back yard, your Wanted Law enforced by the Mineral
back 40 acres, or your expansive, 5,000- County Weed Management District. Half
acre rangeland. But before getting into the of Montana’s counties, in fact, have their
weeds about weeds, it behooves me to point own similar lists.
out your county’s lost opportunity. To the uninitiated, these weeds seem
Nestled next to Idaho in the northwest- innocent enough. After all, they are all
ern nook of Montana, Mineral County’s pretty, blooming with colorful flowers. Bees
name certainly comports with its history, thrive on them. Some, like Canada thistle,
harking back to 1869, when gold and silver are even edible. Others are used medicinally,
were plentifully mined. Of the county’s 19 like hounds tongue for insect bites. Yet the
towns, however, only three have names District is on a crusade to eradicate these
that fit the mineral brand—Quartz, Borax, weeds forever from the gentle fields of
and Keystone. Obviously, the other towns Mineral County. Why?
ought to change their names to something THE SPEEDS OF WEEDS WITH SEEDS
more fitting, like Feldspar, Arsenopyrite, or Let us count the ways. Noxious weeds
Magnesio-Riebeckite. have a destructive impact on Montana’s
How the Mineral County Economic landscape by displacing native plant spe-
Development Corporation could rock with A toadflax weevil chomps on a toadflax flower, a cies, increasing soil erosion, degrading
a powerful boost to tourism! Think of the noxious weed. These types of weed-killing insects wildlife habitat, and reducing recreational
swarms of geological tourists lavishing are used as bio-control agents to help mitigate weed opportunities. They reduce food for native
their hard-earned dollars up and down the infestations. Photo by Joseph Botting. CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
