ShareThisWhat is yellow star thistle: A long-lived winter annual native to the Middle East and Mediterranean regions.
Its impact: Displaces desirable vegetation, hurts livestock grazing, contaminates grain harvest, overtakes parks, trails and hillsides.
Where it's at: Covers 15 million acres in California and has spread to 23 other states.
Size: Can grow to 4 feet high, and its roots can reach 6 feet deep.
Effects: Consumption by horses can lead to brain lesions that cause death. Spines can pierce the skin of hikers and bikers, but it is not poisonous.
Ways to combat: Burning, mowing, tilling, hand-pulling, introducing weevils and flies from native regions, herbicides.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Must credit Sacramento BeeSidebar to YELLOWSTARTHISTLE
