Stinkwort
Welcome to our stinkwort page for practitioners! If you have questions about this work or have information about stinkwort that you would like to share with us, please contact Miranda Melen, mkmelen[at]ucsc.edu or Ingrid Parker, IMParker[at]ucsc.edu.
Stinkwort Workshop
On February 15, 2024, a diverse group of nearly 130 participants met in San Jose, CA, and online for a hybrid workshop dedicated to stinkwort. The workshop aimed to disseminate information on stinkwort biology, control, and monitoring techniques while fostering stakeholder dialogue and collaboration. The meeting was supported by funding from the USDA NIFA program and sponsored by Valley Water, CA State Parks, Cal-IPC, and UC Santa Cruz.
Over several years of stinkwort work in our lab, here are some of the things we've learned in a nutshell:
Stinkwort, originally introduced to Santa Clara County, is spreading away from roads in some areas in central California. Those populations can be large.
Stinkwort does not grow better, or germinate better, in construction soils than in field soils. It likes good soil!
So far, it does not appear that adaptive evolution was required for stinkwort to spread into vegetated areas.
Stinkwort was not a good competitor against common European annual grasses in greenhouse experiments.
In field plots, stinkwort grew and survived much better in plots with extensive soil disturbance and no above or belowground competition.
Stinkwort seeds germinate in a large, synchronous flush after the first big fall rain, with a limited number germinating in additional rains. We are still figuring out what proportion of the seeds stay dormant and when they come out--stay tuned!
When buried even under a tiny amount of soil, the great majority of Dittrichia seeds will not germinate.
Invasions stink: the response of Dittrichia graveolens to competition and disturbance
Invasion potential of the annual plant Dittrichia graveolens in California
Eco-evolutionary drivers of native and exotic range expansion in a weedy annual plant
Literature:
Melen MK, Snyder ED, Fernandez M, Lopez A, Lustenhouwer N, Parker IM. 2024. Invasion away from roadsides was not driven by adaptation to grassland habitats in Dittrichia graveolens (stinkwort). Biological Invasions. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10530-024-03359-6
Melen M. 2024. Stinkwort workshop: Biology, control, and management. California Invasive Plant Council Dispatch Newsletter, Spring Issue. https://www.cal-ipc.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Cal-IPC_Dispatch_News_Spring-2024_FINAL.pdf
Lustenhouwer N, Chaubet TMR, Melen MK, van der Putten WH, Parker IM. 2024. Plant-soil interactions during the native and exotic range expansion of an annual plant. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, voae040. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeb/voae040
McEvoy SL, Lustenhouwer N, Melen MK, Nguyen O, Marimuthu MPA, Chumchim N, Beraut E, Parker IM, Meyer RS. 2023. Chromosome-level reference genome of stinkwort, Dittrichia graveolens (L.) Greuter: A resource for studies on invasion, range expansion, and evolutionary adaptation under global change. Journal of Heredity 114(5): 561-569. https://doi.org/10.1093/jhered/esad033
Lustenhouwer N, Parker IM. 2022. Beyond tracking climate: Niche shifts during native range expansion and their implications for novel invasions. Journal of Biogeography 49:1481–1493. https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14395
We gratefully acknowledge support from the United States Department of Agriculture, National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA-NIFA) grant # 2020-67013-31856.