Combating Aliens Plants.
And no, it isn't some sort or new computer game. In fact, its the process of removing problem plants such as 'Cestrum Laevigatum' or the Cigarette plant which was killing off our livestock and potentially deadly to both humans and wildlife.
Excitedly, we first searched for information on this plant ( Cetrum Laevigatum) from various sites before we started with our practical work.
Description: It is a many brunched plant, which grows from 6-12 meters in length when in coastal regions. But in places such as Limpop or the freestate they grow up to 3 Meters.
Dark- Light greenish colour with yellow tube-like flowers which are quite sweet smelling. Later (Spring-Summer) Greenish berries will appear which to most animals is an open invatation.
Distribution: Mostly in Cattle, especially in winter when there is less to eat. Cattle arent very peticular about what they eat thus are prone to eating anything that they can find.
Prevention: Now most sites said for us to remove our cattle from the "infected" grazing area but preferably we decided to manually cut down near the bottom of the stems then dose them in poison.
Toxic Principle: Diterpenoid.
Clinical Signs: Hollow eyes, salivating, swollen hooves, abdominal pain , muscle tremors, staggering gait, aggression, Groaning, constipation and weakness. Are some of the syptoms.
Now exactly as I explained in "Prevention". Armed with gloves, goggles and poison we bravely dabbed the plants at the base of their open stems. Also, oddly enough the biggest bushes were found in the sun, and the lesser bushes were in the shade. Victoriously the lesson ended with no major casualties.
Over and Out.
=)
Limpopo*
ReplyDelete