Article by Ben Parry-Lemon and Aya Pickett, Tucson Audubon Society . Thanks to the Tucson Audubon Society for sharing this article with our audience and for driving Tucson’s stinknet efforts forward.

A new threat to the Sonoran Desert 

What is that small yellow flowering plant? It is all over the roadsides and blooms along with the other cool season plants creating a beautiful scene. The flower heads on it are cute, it must be harmless. 

You might be having similar thoughts when driving around Northwest Tucson and driving to and from Phoenix and Tucson. The plant that you are able to see at all times of the year throughout its varying life stages along I-10 from the fluorescent green seedling to the dried up rusty colored plant is in fact a highly invasive plant. It is STINKNET, you may have heard about it in recent years.  

Stinknet gets its name from the pungent smell it produces. A few characteristics of the plant to help with identification are its carrot-like leaves, small yellow spherical flower heads lacking petals, and pungent smell. It grows from November through May. When it dries up in the late spring and becomes the bronze color you are able to see along I-10 it becomes highly flammable and has the ability to quickly spread fires.   

What is being done about stinknet in Pima County? 

When you are going around Pima County during the stinknet growing season you may see groups of people surveying roadsides and open areas where stinknet loves to get a hold and quickly spread. Those people are a part of the local Tucson Audubon Society (TAS) Invasive Plant Strike Team. The Invasive Plant Strike Team has played a large role in the fight against stinknet and managing the spread of the plant in Pima County. They have found new large infestations of stinknet in Tucson and have been able to monitor and treat those infestations over the past couple of years. TAS collaborates with many other organizations throughout southeast Arizona to manage the stinknet infestation as it is not something that can be managed by one organization.  

How YOU can help manage the infestation 

If you are looking to join in managing the spread of stinknet throughout the Sonoran Desert there are multiple ways to do so. One of the best forms of management that you can do is to manually remove the plants. If the plants are flowering it is advised to put the plants into trash bags and dispose of them that way to help prevent any seed spread. It is advised to wear gloves and face masks whenever handling the plants due to the plants ability to cause allergic type reactions in people such as headaches and rashes. If you have a population of stinknet in your area that is too large to treat on your own it is recommended to hire certified applicators like the TAS Invasive Plant Strike Team to come in and chemically treat the infestation. 

The easiest way for anyone to be involved in the management of stinknet is to report any findings of the plant to stinknet.org and include a picture of the plant. The information you provide will be used for stinknet monitoring and treatment for years to come. You will allow other members of the community and organizations like TAS to know where new sightings are occurring. They will go out to the reported locations and do a thorough examination to make sure there are not any leftover plants.  

Spreading word about stinknet throughout the community is a major way that we as a community can work together to protect the Sonoran Desert from the threat that is stinknet. 

To learn more about stinknet please visit stinknet.org where you can find links to other sources and brochures.  

Stinknet Removal Saves Saguaros Too! 

Removing stinknet is a way of conserving saguaros as well. Intense fires caused by invasive plants like stinknet have killed hundreds of thousands of saguaros in the last few years. This is why Tucson Audubon is planting thousands of saguaros in areas that were impacted by fires. Saguaros are slow growing plants, so by planting nursery grown saguaros that are already 2 years old, the population has a head start in establishing new generations. In a few decades, these saguaros will provide food and shelter to over 100 species of wildlife. So if you care about your local wildlife and you see stinknet near a saguaro consider removing it and you too can save our saguaros!  

Be on the lookout! Then report it when you see it.