Keep Niwot beautiful

I moved to Niwot from Wyoming in early April, just as things were beginning to green up here. After having spent the previous seven plus years in Cheyenne, I needed to touch up on my knowledge of certain flora and learn new information as well. There are plants that grow around here which I had never seen before. However, there are plants that I knew all too well: weeds.

I was appalled that weeds, especially dandelions, are left to freely duplicate. Weeds are called that because they force out desirable foliage, like lawns, bushes and trees. Weeds are not comfortable with cohabiting with other plants. And I know weeds! In Gillette, Wyo., I was actually known as “The Weed Lady,” and in Cheyenne the police department’s code compliance officer would call on me to identify weeds. So, I’d like to warn you about the two worst weeds I’ve seen here in addition to dandelions.

The first is bindweed. It grows all over Niwot, but its sole purpose in life is to climb other plants and, in so doing, killing them. Bindweed has heart-shaped bright green leaves and flowers that resemble petunias. It grows all along the Niwot Road footpaths and in the green space north of there.

Earlier this week, I discovered it climbing up a large spruce and went absolutely mad tearing as much of it out of the tree as I could. (Whenever you see piles of bindweed vines, chances are you’re seeing my handiwork.) Bindweed is nearly impossible to kill because its roots go so deep, but I hope to never give up the fight.

The second most pernicious weed around here, and it’s also everywhere, is common purslane. You see it all the time in the cracks in streets, sidewalks and driveways and probably think it’s what is known as a jade plant, but they are not closely related. In the United States, purslane is considered a weed, and it grows and spreads like one. In Mexico, purslane is grown as a crop. It is destructive to grass and other plants and almost impossible to eradicate, for if any part of a purslane plant, even the tiniest piece, falls to the ground, another whole plant will spawn from that bit. That doesn’t mean I’ll give up the battle.

Niwot is beautiful, and I hope to help keep it that way.

Kate Missett is a longtime journalist and editor who hails from a newspaper family in Wyoming.