If You Know Them, Report Them

Please report plants that are new to an area if you don't need help with them. We need to map Idaho's weeds to plan our strategy. Your reports are important.

If You Don't Know Them, Request Identification

What to Send

Plants are identified by flowers, fruits, seeds, leaves, stems, roots, and habitat. Send plants that have as many of theses plant parts as possible. Several plants are better than one plant.

How to Send it

Place the plant specimen in a plastic bag between dry paper towels without pressing or adding moisture and close the bag. Store it in a refrigerator until mailing or bringing it in. If mailing your specimen, mail early in the week so it won't sit in a mailbox over the weekend.

Where to Send

Bring or mail your specimens to your nearest county extension office or weed superintendents office. If the county personnel are unable to identify the weed it will be forwarded to the Erickson Weed Diagnostic Laboratory at the University of Idaho for identification.

After You Document Them, Get Rid of Them

New Weed

If a weed is new to the area, record its position to enable adequate reexamination of the site later. This is extremely important. Do this before you remove the weed!

No Flowers/Seeds

If no flowers or seeds are present, pull the weed and place it off the ground to dry out.

Present Flowers/Seeds

If flowers or seeds are present, pull the weed carefully to prevent seeds from falling. Place the weed in a plastic bag or container to retain seeds. Dispose of weeds by burning them or taking them in closed garbage bags to a sanitary landfill.

© 1999 University of Idaho: Text and photographs for these pages from Idaho's Noxious Weeds, by Robert H. Callihan and Timothy W Miller (revised by Don W Morishita and Larry W Lass). For more information about this or other publications, please contact:
Ag Publishing
University of Idaho
Moscow, Idaho 83844 to 2240
Phone: 208-882-7982