The Day of the Rhodies?
17th November 2023
Those who have read Raynor Winn’s ‘The Salt Path’, as she walked along the North Devon Section of the South West Coast Path, may recall her calling into question why conservationists are waging war on these attractively flowered shrubs. What follows may help the less well-informed gain a better understanding of the issues.
Rhododendron ponticum - a latter day John Whyndham Triffid?
I've just had a few days walking holiday in North Devon. One of the more striking threats to the Exmoor environment, especially the woodland perched high up on the edge of the cliffs overlooking the Bristol Channel, has to be the imfamous Rhododendron ponticum – better known as the ‘rhodie’ to those intent on their eradication from this sceptred isle.
So I arrive at Wilderness Wood today with a blood lust – well a sap lust at least. A year ago we gave the 'mother-lode' a real good rhodie bashing during one of our Stewardship Saturday work parties (come along if you fancy doing the follow-up in February).
The 'mother-lode' was only discovered a few years ago, after she had probably spent the previous 10 years casting out her offspring by the millions. She was hidden in a deep thicket of coppiced sweet chestnut where few were prepared to tread. Once discovered, and she must have been a good 10-15 metres in diameter, we were determined to nail her once and for all. This we came close to doing last February with the enthusiastic assistance of owner Emily.
A satisfied owner of Wilderness Wood surveys the rhodie carnage of February 2023
I'm not really out to do too much damage today, mostly mapping the whereabouts of any overlooked rhodies which might be in hiding. I am armed with a map of the site, a biro, a small spade and secateurs. The first two of these are the key ones today, ready for when we finish the job in February 2024. The spade may come in useful for smaller plants and the secateurs to remove the flower buds off the bigger ones. No flower bud, no flower; no flower, no seeds; no seeds, no plants. It's all pretty basic biology. But there's nothing basic about rhodies. They cling to life like you might cling to a long lost brother. In fact clinging is their strong suit. Their roots can become entwined with those of coppice stools, whilst their branch and root systems appear to sprawl outward and upward at great speed. However, one thing they seem to be less good at is sending roots deep into the ground. They often come out with surprising ease - but not always!
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Why do we want to remove these pretty flowering shrubs anyway?
“Have you got something against foreigners?” you may ask. Well yes I have, if their existence is at the expense of native woodland trees, flowering plants and ferns. It's actually an unfair contest since foreign species often arrive, introduced by man, without their predators. Without these, the rhodie spreads unchecked by nature. Eventually evolution will doubtless sort it all out, but not before we have lost even more of our precious native woodland. A stitch in time ….
The rhodie shades-out anything smaller than itself, which includes young trees – meaning that in time there will be no trees, once the older ones have died of old age. On Exmoor you can see rhodies towering over the slow growing oaks on the steeper slopes and even breaking away across the heather moorland, engulfing everything and anything with their leathery evergreen leaves and laying waste to the soil beneath with a growth inhibitor they put into it.
They also have poison in their leaves, whilst their nectar has been recorded as making bee honey poisonous to humans (https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/hidden-poison-rhododendron-nectar). This is a potential threat to Wilderness Wood honey bee farming.
So the rhodies have to go!
I decide to visit a new area on the way to the mother-lode, just in case any new plants have appeared over the last couple of years. Thankfully I find none, but this is not the case on arriving at Underoak Camp. The first plant I find is quite small and I am able to remove it with my spade, hanging it 'root-n-all' in the branches of a chesnut coppice. I'm not alone in this practice, having spotted a similar hanging rhodie on Exmoor last week.
Exmoor rhodie hung out to dry by a local rhodie basher
The next 10 plants are far too big for me to remove single-handed and I'll need to return with a rhodie-bashing team in February to sort them out. I do however make good use of my secateurs, sniping off the terminal buds so that no flowers can be produced. These can appear as early as February at Wilderness Wood.
Flower buds snipped off the rhodie to buy time. It is intended to eventually dig it up.
Ideally rhodie spotting, for rhodie bashing purposes, should be done in the winter time, since their shiny evergreen leaves are easy to spot in a deciduous woodland. However, it has been so mild this year that many of the sweet chestnuts and brambles still have their leaves also. Nonetheless, my practiced eye picks them out and they are recorded ready for despatch during the coming February.
My final rhodie encounter is with the mother-lode. She may have been reduced to just a few square metres of greenery by last years campaign, but she is already mantled in fresh green leaf growth. I don't know if rhodies produce flowers in their first year, but we are not going to wait to find out.
The rhodie ‘mother load’ once occupied the whole of this area. They are stubborn plants!
Finally I locate another rampant plant just outside the Christmas Tree field. This one is going to be the most challenging come February. On my way back I bump into Jake who is as keen to control the invader as I. We spend a few minutes trading rhodie war stories and I provide him with the map which I have been recording the rhodie locations on. In previous years we have found rhodie outliers all over the 60 acres of Wilderness Wood, so even if we remove the dozen I have located there will be plenty more to keep us busy in future years.
Rhodie survey map 17/11/23
Wilderness Wood is fortunate to have a number of staff and volunteers dedicated to conservation work and we are doing quite well controlling our own rhodies. However, I do worry about adjacent woodland where rodies appear to go unchecked by the landowner. I have an armageddon picture in my head of Wilderness Wood being the last bit of un-rhodified woodland in Britain, as the bright pink flowered monsters gather in force at our boundary, like latter-day John Whyndham Triffids!
Sleep well tonight, but be warned – The Day of the Rhodie is nigh!
David Horne
Follow my exploration of the British coastline on www.leggingroundbritain.com. Email any thoughts and feedback to me on davidwillhorne@googlemail.com