Health benefits of Crofton weed

Often referred to as “Crofton weed,” Ageratina adenophora (synonym Eupatorium adenophorum) is a species of flowering plant in the Asteraceae Bercht. & J. Presl (Aster family) that is distinguished by its daisy-like flower heads. It is renowned for its capacity to proliferate swiftly, take over entire landscapes, and frequently outcompete local flora. Due of its invasive nature and effects on local flora, it is of interest to ecologists and hobbyists even though it has little ornamental or commercial value. Although the plant is native to Mexico and Central America, it has become invasive all over the world. In some parts of Australia and the USA, it is included on the official state list of noxious weeds. Additionally, it has spread to portions of southern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its expansion throughout Asia is well known, particularly in China, where it is also a threat to agriculture.

Some of the common names for Crofton weed include cat weed, hemp agrimony, Mexican devil, sticky agrimony, sticky eupatorium, sticky snakeroot, white thoroughwort, eupatory, sticky snakeroot, Maui pamakani, Catspaw, Glandular eupatorium, and pamakani. The Greek word “un-aging,” which refers to the blooms’ ability to hold their color for an extended period of time, is the source of the genus name Ageratina. Dioscorides gave a number of different plants this name. Grown for aesthetic purposes, it has spread globally, invading forests and farmlands. It is poisonous to horses, and consuming it causes them to have Numinbah Horse Sickness, a respiratory illness.

Crofton Weeds Facts

Plant Description

Long-lived, evergreen, perennial, herbaceous, and with a maximum known height of approximately 3 meters, Crofton weed usually reaches a height of 1 to 2 meters. Generally speaking, it grows a few millimeters every month, depending on the surroundings. The plant can displace native species and change the structure of the soil due to its fibrous roots, which can spread far and cause issues. The plant grows in a variety of habitats, including dry to wet forests, riverbanks, swampy areas, grasslands, disturbed areas, roadsides, borders of shrubs and trees, wetlands, creeks, wetlands, open forests, gum lands, slips, alluvial flats, coast and estuaries, railway embankments, waste areas, ungrazed smallholdings, cleared land, fence lines, and abandoned estates that produced bananas. The plant grows well in clay, loamy, and sandy soils and is not very picky about them. It favors soils with a pH range of neutral to slightly acidic that drain effectively.

Stem

When the branched stems are young, they are heavily coated in glandular, or sticky, hairs that might have a green, reddish, or purplish hue. When they reach maturity, they become slightly woody and take on a brownish-green or brown hue. An adventitious root may emerge on the first 3 cm of the stem. Stems originate from a short, thick, pale-yellow rootstock that smells like carrots when broken. Numerous branching secondary roots spread laterally to a radius of 1 m and downward to 40 cm.

Leaves

The leaves are carried on stalks, or petioles, that are 1-6 cm long and placed in opposition to one another along the stems. The leaf blades have bluntly or severely serrated (i.e., crenate or serrate) margins and are trowel-shaped, diamond-shaped (i.e., rhomboid), or triangular in shape. They measure 4–15 cm long and 3–9 cm broad. These leaves are glabrous (usually hairless) with acute apices, or sharp points, but their petioles, or stalks, are sometimes covered in sticky hairs, making them glandular pubescent.

Flowers

The little flower-heads, or capitula, are made up of multiple small flowers, or tubular florets, encircled by two rows of 3-5 mm long greenish bracts, or an involucre. The small flower-heads lack big “petals,” or ray florets. Large numbers of these 5-8 mm wide flower-heads are carried in clusters at the tips of the branches, resembling terminal corymbose inflorescences. The 3-5 mm long, white, tubular florets are bisexual since they have both male and female flower components. In northern locations, flowering typically takes place in the spring and early summer, whereas in southern regions, it happens in the late summer and fall.

Fruit

Achenes, or fruits, are angular, thin, slightly curved, and colored either reddish-brown or blackish-brown. The seeds are 1-2 mm long and 0.3-0.5 mm wide, with four or five little ribs running lengthwise, or longitudinally, and a hairless (glabrous) body. They do, however, have a ring (pappus) at the top made up of many tiny, easily shed white hairs that are 3–4 mm long.

History

Although it originated in Mexico, coral weed has spread to many other nations. Since its introduction as an ornamental in the nineteenth century, it has become established as an invasive weed in many subtropical regions of the world, including Africa (Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and South Africa), Oceania (Hawaiian Islands, Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia, and Papua New Guinea), Asia (India, Nepal, China, the Philippines, Thailand, and Brunei), and Europe (France, Greece, Portugal, and Spain). Captain James Makee brought it to the Hawaiian island of Maui in 1860 as a decorative plant, and it soon spread to roadsides and rangelands.

Health benefits

• Traditional medicines use the leaves of the sticky snakeroot, also known as crofton weed, to treat a variety of ailments.
• They have antibacterial and astringent properties and are used to treat wounds, itching, measles, skin conditions, and uterine bleeding.
• Root extract is given to treat fever, and leaf extract is used to control bleeding from cuts and wounds and create clots.
• In addition to treating sleeplessness, leaf juice is applied topically to cure dysentery.

Different Uses

• Composting Material: Crofton weed’s high biomass production and quick growth make it a suitable resource for green compost. It breaks down into a nutrient-rich compost when combined with other composting components, which can improve soil fertility and health.
• Allelopathic Properties: Allelopathic means that the plant has the ability to release substances that prevent other plants from growing around it. In managed agricultural settings, this trait can be used to suppress weeds, although careful control is needed to avoid detrimental effects on intended crops.
• Honey Production: Honeybees can obtain nectar from the flowers of Crofton weed in areas where it is not considered an invasive species. The plant can aid in the production of honey in the area, albeit the honey’s flavor and quality may differ.
• Pest Management: Crofton weed offers a home for predatory insects and other natural enemies of agricultural pests, therefore it can be useful in integrated pest management (IPM) tactics. To make sure that it doesn’t end up serving as a host plant for pests, this use needs to be closely monitored.
• Landscaping and Garden Mulch: In landscaping projects, Crofton weed’s dense leaves can be utilized as a living mulch to keep soil moisture in check, restrict plant growth, and create ground cover. However, because of its potential for invasion, its use for this purpose should be addressed cautiously.
• Study of Invasive Species Dynamics: The efficacy of different control strategies, the dynamics of invasive species, and their effects on ecosystems can all be studied using the common organism, crofton weed. These studies may also shed light on how to manage invasive species of other kinds.

Prevention and Control

When thinking about chemical control, you should check your country’s national list of registered pesticides or the appropriate government to find out whether products are lawfully permitted for use there due to the inconsistent restrictions surrounding (de)registration of pesticides. It is important to always apply pesticides legally and in accordance with the directions on the label.

Mechanical Control

When possible, slashing, ripping, or plowing should be done to reduce crofton weed before planting a pasture with legumes and tropical grasses that are appropriate for the area. Although it may be challenging to establish planted pastures in the spring before the weeds germinate in the summer due to unpredictable rainfall patterns, improving pastures is likely the most successful form of control. When wheeled tractors cannot be used safely, slash and cultivate infested regions in the early spring utilizing crawler tractors and tandem offset discs. High-rate sow the pasture mixture, and spot-treat seedlings as they emerge.

Chemical Control

Applying glyphosate, dicamba + MCPA, or picloram + triclopyr in large quantities during late summer or early fall, when the weed is actively growing, and completely soaking the entire plant, especially the base, is an effective method of chemical management. If the slope allows, utilize a gas cannon to deliver low volume, high concentration treatments of picloram + triclopyr, or treat scattered plants with granular herbicide formulations in less accessible, steep, or rocky regions. Boom spray denser infestations with dicamba + MCPA.

Biological Control

Procecidochares utilis, a trypetid gall fly, was brought to Queensland, Australia, in 1952 as a result of the trypetid weed’s relative success in Hawaii, USA, with biological control. It was effectively planted, but because native hymenopteran insects parasitized it, the extent of the harm varied. Additionally, a local cerambycid that bores crowns, Dihammus argentatus, and an alien fungus called Cercospora eupatorii attack crofton weed. The combined influence of these organisms has diminished plant vigor, but none of them provides any meaningful degree of control on its own. In Hawaii, USA, biological control was first implemented. Osborne conducted a survey of the weed’s natural enemies within its native habitat in Mexico, and in 1945 the gall fly P. utilis was introduced. All areas saw successful weed removal, with the exception of some all locations saw successful weed management, with the exception of those with yearly rainfall above 1030–1540 mm. The gall fly was brought to the Indian foothills of the Himalayas in 1963, along with a particular leaf spot disease caused by Mycovellosiella sp.; however, its influence has been lessened by parasitism by native parasitoids. When the weed spread throughout China, the gall fly was brought in from the Nepali border and released in Yunnan Province and then Sichuan Province, but the high parasitism has produced unsatisfactory results. Additionally, attempts at biological management have been made in South Africa and New Zealand, where the fungus and gall fly are well-established, but the weed has not responded well to these attempts.

Side effects

Horses that eat crofton weed get a chronic lung ailment in northern New South Wales and Queensland called Numinbah Horse Sickness or Tallebudgera Horse ailment.

References:

https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=36465#null

http://www.hear.org/pier/species/ageratina_adenophora.htm

https://www.cabidigitallibrary.org/doi/10.1079/cabicompendium.23243

https://gd.eppo.int/taxon/EUPAD

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ageratina_adenophora

https://biodiversity.bt/species/show/3949

https://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/228664

https://www.flowersofindia.net/catalog/slides/Catweed.html

https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/ageratina-adenophora/

https://plants.usda.gov/home/plantProfile?symbol=AGAD2

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