What if our problems with "invasive" plants were really just a matter of repairing broken relationships? I have been sitting with the Curley Yellow Dock (Rumex crispus) situation at the Laguna de Santa Rosa open space for a while now. The plant is considered "invasive" and I was told several years ago that Sonoma County agencies were trying to control it with pesticide applications. My observations have been that the Yellow Dock has continued to grow in abundance despite the pesticide treatments. Yellow Dock is commonly targeted as an "invasive weed" in ecosystem restoration projects.
Yellow Dock is a native to Europe and likely accompanied the European Settlers. It may have been intentionally brought in as it is a useful kitchen medicinal. Yellow Dock has also been a food source for humans for thousands of years. Yellow Dock seeds were found in the stomach of the Grauballe "Bog" Man who is dated to have died in 55 BC. It is reported that Native Americans also incorporated Yellow Dock seeds into their diets after it was brought over from Europe. The dried seeds can be ground and mixed in with bread flour or gruel. Yellow Dock is a member of the buckwheat family.
Yellow Dock is also a powerful healer for ecosystems. Its big tap roots break up compacted soil to allow water and nutrients to flow in. The Laguna de Santa Rosa open space was once used as an airport and for grazing land. This has left the soil overly compacted and devoid of needed nutrients. Yellow Dock would be a good medicinal plant for this soil.
University Agricultural Extension organizations often warn land managers of Yellow Dock even though their claims that it can harm livestock are unfounded (ask local grazing expert Sarah Keiser.) The biggest fear in the mainstream literature is that one plant can make 60,000 seeds which can last in the soil for 80 years. The threat is...if you don't remove one plant today, you're going to have a bigger problem on your hands.
What to do...what to do...a plant that is beneficial to soil health that makes a lot of edible seeds...
Banana dock pancakes with wild grape syrup
What if the solution looked less like pesticides and more like pancakes? Last week my daughter and I collected 1 stock of Yellow Dock from an undisclosed location in Sebastopol. We roughly removed the seeds from the stock and lightly toasted them in a 350 degree oven for 3 minutes. We ground the seeds (husk and all) in our blender. Instructions to do this are all over the internet. One stalk of Yellow Dock made about 1/3 C of toasty flour. It smelled like molasses. We used the flour in our favorite banana pancake recipe. The results were delicious. One can safely replace 25% of flour in most recipes with Yellow Dock flour.
The problem our land managers are experiencing with weeds like Yellow Dock might be less a story of a "bad" plant coming in to "invade" and more a story of a broken relationship. If we were still in a reciprocal relationship with plants like Yellow Dock, we'd harvest the medicine and the seeds. Rather than seeing 60,000 seeds per plant as a threat, we could see this as an opportunity for free, nutritious, locally sourced food.
There are many other examples I've seen of potentially beneficial (and delicious) plants turned into "invasive weeds" and managed with pesticides. For example, Dandelions are often targeted on lawns with dangerous selective herbicides. Their leaves and roots are extremely nutritious and medicinal. Azolla, an aquatic plant used as a fertilizer by-crop in asian rice fields was recently treated with pesticide an application in Spring Lake. The Azolla could have been harvested and used in local organic compost operations. Wild grass on roadsides is harvested as a hay crop in states like Minnesota, but it is sprayed down with pesticides in California. Common Fennel grows abundantly in Sonoma County and is an important host plant for Swallowtail Butterflies. It is also considered a "noxious weed" by most university agricultural extension organizations. The seeds could be harvested and made into all sorts of delicious things including a wild fennel liqueur. The only problem is...if we use pesticides in the areas where these plants grow (like road and trail sides), it is no longer safe to harvest them for a beneficial use.
What if our path toward bringing balance and health to the earth is not only through traditional ecosystem "restoration" but also through re-storying the ideas we have of who we are and what our responsibilities are to each other and the earth. We need to put ourselves back into ecosystems and interact with the plants, animals, and soil, not just in difficult times but also in times of harvest and abundance. The earth is constantly giving, but the relationship fails if we are unwilling to receive, or worse, if we are only able to see the gifts as a threat.
Yellow dock roots are medicinally useful also. Dig up roots in the fall, chop them up and soak in 100 proof vodka for a month or two, then decant. The tincture is very useful for poison oak: topically it relieves the itching and helps with healing; a half-dropper full in water clears it faster.