Brought over in 1839 for its exquisite flowers, Himalayan Balsam is now ravaging our river banks. It grows rapidly and spreads quickly, smothering other plants as it goes. As you walk along the River Crane, you see it standing in pockets of dense thickets on either side, despite hard efforts to keep it at bay.
I was in two minds about whether to draw it. It is a beautiful plant, growing taller than head height, with large leaves and orchid-like flowers that attract the bees. But it is the bully of the river banks, depriving smaller native plants of light, nutrients and pollinators necessary for survival. When it dies back, it leaves the river banks bare and depleted, where normally plants that flower at other times of year would be able to grow. Insects and birds that feed on these other plants also lose out.
But I thought “I’ll just try and pull one up and see“. Large weeds are not usually easy to just pull up or even dig up and in my experience with other large weeds, they often wilt within minutes and don’t recover – so disappointing!
It has vicious looking red roots…
To my surprise it came up easily, bringing a clump of earth with it. I carefully put it inside a compost sack, aware that unless completely wrapped up, I might be spreading its seeds further afield. One plant can produce 800 seeds which, often carried by the river, go on to germinate downstream. By the time it was back in my studio it had wilted. But I planted it in a bucket, watered it and went home, hoping for the best. The next day it had recovered completely! It just had to be drawn!
Now I feel a sense of guilt. Like my forebears, I couldn’t resist this beautiful plant!
(Though perhaps if they had just drawn it, rather than bringing it back to England, our river banks would be in a much better state!)
