Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Cultivation => Cultivation Problems => Topic started by: Alan_b on May 29, 2017, 03:44:12 PM

Title: What is partial to Cow Parsley?
Post by: Alan_b on May 29, 2017, 03:44:12 PM: I grow Cow Parsley (Anthriscus sylvestris) in my garden. I have a dark-leaved form called 'Ravenswing', a yellow-leaved form and some of the normal form (from which I remove the flower buds to prevent cross-pollination). I often go away for a week in May. When I leave the Cow Parsley seems perfectly fine and when I come back it is gone. I presume from the skeletal remains of the leaves that the damage is done by some sort of caterpillar but which one?
Title: Re: What is partial to Cow Parsley?
Post by: Maggi Young on May 29, 2017, 04:16:52 PM: The speed of destruction sounds like the way Solomon's Seal Saw Fly destroys those plants.
Title: Re: What is partial to Cow Parsley?
Post by: Alan_b on May 29, 2017, 05:34:48 PM: Yes Maggi, I gave-up on Solomon's Seal after losing a plant that way. However whatever eats the Cow Parsley is not fatal to the plant, it just accelerates the summer die-back. New leaves will begin to re-appear in the autumn.
Title: Re: What is partial to Cow Parsley?
Post by: Maggi Young on May 29, 2017, 06:08:48 PM: The Saw Fly caterpillars which chomp my neighbour's clump of Soloman's Seal down to naked stems each year are not fatal to the plant either - it comes back each year. I feel sorry for the plant - but it's not a quitter!
Title: Re: What is partial to Cow Parsley?
Post by: Olive Mason on May 29, 2017, 07:35:17 PM: I have noticed the same thing in my garden Alan and like you wondered what was doing it.
Title: Re: What is partial to Cow Parsley?
Post by: brianw on May 29, 2017, 08:00:01 PM: Take your pick?
http://www.northumberlandmoths.org.uk/foodplants.php?foodplant=Anthriscus%20sylvestris (http://www.northumberlandmoths.org.uk/foodplants.php?foodplant=Anthriscus%20sylvestris)
Title: Re: What is partial to Cow Parsley?
Post by: Alan_b on May 30, 2017, 06:34:21 AM: Thank you, brianw, that's a useful web site. Yet despite the fact that the site lists around 40 moths that feed on Stinging Nettles (compared to 4 for Cow Parsley), nettles don't vanish from my garden in the way that the Cow Parsley does. I guess Olive and I will just have to keep watch until we catch some bug in the act.