Anthony
From: MX%"fisk@midway.uchicago.edu" 26-SEP-1997 18:37:30.95
To: MX%"ethno-bio@sfu.ca"
CC:
Subj: question re the conquest by Eupatorium
Dear Ethno-Biology list members:
I have a question regarding possible countermeasures against an
introduced weed which is spreading northward in northern mainland
Southeast Asia and Southwest China and severely impedes agriculture in
the areas it conquers. I am but an amateur botanist, and would
appreciate any suggestions that might be useful in South Yunnan province
in China (where I have conducted anthropological fieldwork since 1996).
The weed, Eupatorium adenphorum (Spreng), is a 1 - 1,5 m. tall weed
originally from Central America. Its Chinese name is Zijingzelan [zi3
jing4 ze2 lan2] (colloquially: Gaifangcao). It arrived in Yunnan in the
1950s and is now reported to advance northward with a speed of about 20
km. per year in Yunnan and Burma/Myanmar. It dies from frost, but
quickly recovers even at those altitudes where frost appears in winter.
Cattle don't eat it, and horses are said to get sick from eating it. It
invades swiddens and hampers forest regrowth there - about the only
places it does not grow is in shady forest. In the 1980s, Chinese
authorities introduced a parasite fly that had previously been released
in Nepal and elsewhere for the same purpose, but only marginal success
has been achieved (parasite larvae live in the stem of the weed, but the
weed usually seems to survive this just fine). Much research has already
been done in China but no effective countermeasures have yet been found.
In the areas I work, with Chinese, Lahu, Dai and Wa populations, no one
seems to have any good ideas and most people seem resigned to the weed's
conquest and all the extra hard labor it causes (the roots, by which the
weed spreads, are strong and hard to cut).
Recently I have seen published indigenous (Kammu of Laos)
countermeasures against the similarly disastrous weed grass Imperata
cylindrica (Tayanin and Lindell. How to quell grass? _Indigenous
Knowledge and Development Monitor_ 3.2, under "Calls" at
http://www.nufficcs.nl/ciran/ikdm/
and there is also Tayanin and Lindell. Kammu women suppress grass weeds
with sesame. _ILEIA for Ecologically Sound Agriculture_ 12.1) and would
be delighted to hear from any botanists or agriculture specialists who
may be able to suggest similar countermeasures.
Magnus Fiskesjo
Ph.D. candidate, Dept. of Anthropology and Dept. of East Asian Languages
and Civilizations, University of Chicago
E-mail: fisk@midway.uchicago.edu
Fax: 1-773-834 1323 + "attn. Magnus Fiskesjo, Dept. EALC"
Home address: 5428 South Kimbark Ave., Apt. 3F, Chicago, Illinois 60615,
USA