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Photo by Paul Fattig Noxious-weed specialist Ken French takes on an invasive Scotch thistle that grew to 14 feet tall near Ashland. Nightmare weed pops up around state By PAUL FATTIG ASHLAND -- It loomed overhead like a skeletal specter from some sci-fi movie. To find out more For more information on Scotch thistle or other noxious weeds, call agronomist Ken French at (541) 839-4385. His mailing address is: Ken French, Noxious Weed Control, P.O. Box 312, Canyonville, OR 97417. Its bony pale-green frame and limbs bristled with needle-like spines, making its lair in the blackberry patch soft by comparison. But Ken French -- who at 6-foot-4 rose only to the monster's midriff -- was armed for combat with pruning shears, shovel and thick gloves. The noxious-weed specialist for the Oregon Department of Agriculture was about to battle a 14-foot onopordum, one of the latest green invaders in Jackson County. "It's really a plant out of place," French said of the giant weed otherwise known as Scotch thistle. "It's a large, spiny, nasty thistle that's very invasive with the potential to severely impact our environment." A patch of Scotch thistle will not only stop recreation dead in its tracks but will push aside the most aggressive of native plants, he said. Consider the 15 plants found two weeks ago near an organic farm near Ashland. "You can see how it grew up among these blackberries," he said. "And blackberries are very aggressive." The good news is that the plant, a native of Europe probably introduced through livestock feed, has limited distribution in Western Oregon, he said. "As far as we know, there are only four, possibly five sites, where it has been found west of the Cascades," he said. The bad news? The huge thistles have taken root in northeastern Oregon, he said, and now they're popping up in Klamath County. French acknowledges that not everyone sees the thistle as a weed. Some folks believe it is a decorative plant, he noted. "It's a showy plant, but it has a nasty side to it," he said, holding up an arm to show where his skin had been punctured by the spines. "That was last week -- it swelled up to about the size of a silver dollar," he said. "Western Oregon could do without it taking over." The Scotch thistle has beautiful purple blossoms. Its leaves are 2 feet long and a foot wide, growing out of a main stem more than 2 inches in diameter. The leaf and stock are covered with a cotton-like white fiber, giving it a pale green color. Scotch thistle isn't the only invasive thistle that worries agronomist French -- yellow starthistle, Canada thistle, milk thistle and distaff thistle all suck precious water and minerals from the soil. But Scotch thistle may be the biggest and the baddest, he warned. It was first detected in Jackson County around 1990 when two infestations were found near Ruch. Those patches have been manually removed but are being watched for new plants. "We can't say we've got rid of it yet because the seed lasts so long in the soil -- 20 to 30 years," he said. "But we feel we've got that infestation down." A patch growing near a barn farther up the Applegate Valley also was removed, he said, and then came the thistle near Ashland. Because of the proximity to the organic farm, French used his shovel and pruning shears to eradicate the plants. "There are other ways to control them -- you can use herbicides on them," he said. "But the landowners here requested that just manual methods be used." Authorities use biological controls whenever possible on noxious weeds, he said. However, if the population increases in the county, more drastic measures may be required. "I certainly don't have the time to control 40 infestations of Scotch thistle manually," he said. "It took me about four hours to dig out 15 plants here." The problem is that the wind can spread the seeds of one plant far afield, he said. "If a person has this plant in their garden, the best thing to do is cut every bloom, put them in a plastic bag, double bag them and take them to a landfill or Biomass," he said. "Remove any seed source this year, and dig out the existing plant. "But you still have to watch for new plants coming up," he said. "Those seeds survive in the ground for a long time." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA