GL>         I thought Milk Thistle and St. John Wort were two good plants.
GL>         What is it about MT and SJW that might be considered bad?
GL>         Thanks.
The legal definition of "noxious weed" (in Washington State) is "any
plant which when established is highly destructive, competitive, or
difficult to control by cultural or chemical practices" with three
classes; Class A (such limited distribution that eradication is
considered a reasonable goal), Class B (can be contained in the
region(s) where they already occur), & Class C (controlled at the
discretion of individual county noxious Weed Control Boards)
Milk Thistle (Class A): best guess is it's invasive - competitive & hard
to control (somebody was afraid it would be another "vine that ate the
south" (kudzu))
St John's Wort (Class C in Washington - Class B in Oregon): phototoxic
to livestock - if livestock eat SJW (either in contaminated hay or on
over-grazed pastureland) it has a photosensitizing effect leading to
sunburn on exposed body parts and milk cows with sunburned nose produce
little milk...  IMNSHO if the $#*&$%$ dairy farmers didn't try to raise
3-4 times as many cows as the pastureland could support there would be
no problem >;->
BTW "control" is defined as 'prevention of seed production' - a loophole
that was requested by bio-control researchers that were trying to
establish the Cinnabar Moth to control Tansy-Ragwort (for those that
never heard of the cinnabar moth, it's an attractive little red & black
moth with a yellow & black prison-striped caterpillar that has a
voracious appetite for tansy-ragwort)
As a side note a nursery north of here has a specimen of Vietnamese Ivy
imprisoned in their greenhouse - dinner-plate sized leaves, grows 2-3
FEET per day (think Kudzu on steroids *g*) - good thing it can't survive
outside the greenhouse >;->
Laird
 * SLMR 2.1a * The pot at the end of the rainbow is not Acapulco Gold.
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