Rododendrons Invade Dorset Countryside

 NO NATURAL PREDATORS!

Nothing eats it!  No diseases attack it!  It is poisonous, in fact; very poisonous and it spreads at a phenomenal rate, both vegetativly, as it spreads procumbently along the ground, but mostly from its million of tiny seed, which are also very poisonous.

Back home in its native Himalayas, the Rhododendron has a natural balance with the other wildlife in its area, which it has evolved in unison with.  It has diseases which attack and sometimes kill it, it has bugs and beasties which munch its leaves, but here it has none of that to contend with, and just look at the devastation caused to the under canopy and forest floor, when nothing else grows, besides Rhododendron.

Can't See the Woods for the Rhododendrons

If this part of Dorset wasn't so flat, or if I felt energised enough to climb up a tree; I could have shown you a wood-scape, in which the forest floor is completely Rhododendron.  But I think the pictures on this post, give you a pretty good idea of how bad the problem is.  Even under a dense canopy of conifers; these things rampage monstrously through our precious Eco-system.  A solid tangle of twisted branches, masked by a 20 foot/3 metre blanket of toxic, useless dark green uninviting leaves. 

Left to their own devices even our large trees would mostly die out, since seedling trees cannot penetrate this dense under canopy and new trees from seed cant grow, because there isn't enough light down on the forest floor.

Rhododendrons on the other hand seem to thrive in an conditions in the UK, but greatly prefer the shade of large deciduous trees.

Invasive Species of Rhododendron

There are three main invasive species in the UK, out of all the many hundreds of species and varieties, which have been brought over from abroad or hybridised.

The species featured here is Rhododendron Ponticum.  There is no doubting, that this one is the worsted invasive species of Rhododendron in the UK by far.