A team of volunteers from Blanco and the area descended on Blanco State Park this past Saturday, working three or more hours to help remove a plant that’s invading the park.

Annual Bastard-Cabbage (Rapistrum rugosum) grows one to five or more feet in height and has small, yellow flowers. The cabbage crowds out native plants, growing in parks, pastures and roadsides everywhere.

The best way to remove the plant is to pull it, taproot and all.

Connie Barron, a member of the Highland Lakes Master Naturalists and a volunteer who works to keep the park beautiful, asked for help. Volunteers came from the Highland Lakes and Capital Area Master Naturalist chapters, from around Blanco, and included some Highland Lakes Master Gardeners, reports Sheryl Smith-Rodgers.

The group made progress, Smith-Rodgers says on her blog, Window on a Texas Wildscape. “But there is LOADS more of this terrible plant in the park.”