Heat patrons are being buried in the ground in Albäckskogen in Trelleborg in an attempt to get rid of the invasive plant parkslide, reports SVT Skåne.
With a temperature of 300 degrees, the heat from the patrons is intended to eradicate the unwanted plant at a cellular level.
54 heat patrons on a 150 square meter area cost the municipality 300,000 kronor.
It's an expensive method, but we got a discount since it's a trial area, says Cathrine Ek, Trelleborg's municipal ecologist, to SVT.
If the expensive method works, it will be evaluated by researchers and the results will come in a few years.
We'll come here at regular intervals during the first years and check that no shoots have come up, says Lars-Göran Lindkvist, entrepreneur working with the trial in Trelleborg.
• Easy to establish itself on almost any type of soil.
• Easy to spread with extremely small root or stem fragments. The species can establish itself from root pieces weighing less than a gram.
• A quick start and growth early in the spring, before most other species.
• Rapid growth, which makes the species quickly establish itself, and the ability to form dense stands that cover other vegetation. Parkslide is thus very competitive against other species.
• Roots that store nutrients at great depths, which makes it possible for the species to re-establish itself even when above-ground vegetation and shallow roots have been removed. Therefore, parkslide is very difficult to combat.
• Ability to use its stored resources to shoot new shoots many years after treatment such as mowing or chemical control has begun.
• Ability to react to control attempts by shooting root shoots up to seven meters from the main plant.
• Higher tolerance for chemical control agents compared to many other species.
Source: The Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.
