BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A weed that’s strong enough to stop combines and resist many herbicides has been found in North Dakota for the first time, the state Agriculture Department said Tuesday .
A farmer recently found Palmer amaranth growing in a soybean field in McIntosh County, in the state’s southeast. The finding was confirmed through DNA analysis.
The aggressive pigweed species is native to the desert regions of the southwestern U.S. and northern Mexico, but it has slowly spread to southeastern and Midwestern states, where it has become a major threat to cotton, corn and soybean crops. In recent years, it has moved into South Dakota, Minnesota and Iowa.
It can grow as much as 3 inches per day and as tall as 7 feet, with each plant producing hundreds of thousands of seeds. The threat from Palmer amaranth is so great that North Dakota State University Weed Science officials named it the “weed of the year” in both 2014 and 2015, even though it hadn’t yet been found in the state.
Credit: www.sfgate.com
