CRAIG'S JUICY NATIVE GRASS GOSSIP & Research

Ooopps...there Goes Another North American Ecosystem, or Will the Mojave Desert and the Sonoran Desert, along with the native vegetation of four National Parks, disappear within our lifetime?

The Desert Exotic Invasive Mustards or "Dude, where's my Desert Ecosystem?" or "Did you want Mustard on that desert ecosystem?" or "Got Mustard?" or the
"No Mustards Left Behind" program

Edited, published and text and photos are Copyright © 2005 by Craig Dremann of The Reveg Edge (sm). P.O. Box 609, Redwood City, Cal. 94064. Phone (650) 325-7333 email
The URL of this issue is: http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.gossip.seventeen.html or http://www.ecoseeds.com/mustards.html - No. 17- April-July, 2005

Index of all the Juicy Gossips at http://www.ecoseeds.com/juicy.html
EXOTIC INVASIVE MUSTARD No. 3, Indian Hedge Mustard

There's a third exotic mustard that is just now forming solid stands along Caltrans (California Dept. of Transportation) roadsides in the Mojave, with the potential to get firmly established in new FHWA highway construction, like along Cal. 58 in Kern County.

About an acre along the new construction of Cal. Hwy. 58 at PM 12.00 on the north side, SISYMBRIUM ORIENTALE or the INDIAN HEDGE MUSTARD, and there's many miles already established along the roadsides of US 395, from Kramer Junction (Cal. 58 junction), north to the ghost town of Johannesburg.

This species is poised to take advantage of the Caltrans and Federal Highway Administration's funded widening of Highway 58, from Kramer Junction to the town of Mojave. After construction, there has been no replanting of the local native desert plants along the roadsides, leaving miles of roadsides and medians of Highway 58 as one huge bare area, just ready for an exotic plant to colonize.

A third exotic mustard, SISYMBRIUM ORIENTALE or Indian Hedge Mustard, about one acre at PM 12 of Cal. Hwy 58 San Bernardino Co., getting established within the new Caltrans right-of-way, after construction, probably from contaminated straw used for erosion control.

Back to main web page

Updated July 20, 2005