 Ragwort seeds can lie dormant in the ground for 20 years. |
A clean-up operation to clear poisonous weeds from roadside verges in the North West will cost �170,000. The Highways Agency has said it will spend a month spraying herbicide on common ragwort growing alongside seven motorways in the region.
The yellow weed is one of the most frequent causes of livestock being poisoned by plants.
Each plant sheds up to 150,000 seeds and can prove harmful to donkeys, horses, sheep and cattle.
Once all the plants are sprayed, contractors will then go around removing them.
Perennial problem
Tony Sangwine, from the Highways Agency, said: "Ragwort is a difficult plant to combat as it is almost impossible to eradicate; at best it can be controlled.
"The seeds are very robust and can lie dormant in the soil for up to 20 years and so ragwort grows unexpectedly in many different places.
"The Highways Agency takes this perennial problem very seriously and we are continually looking at new, environmentally friendly techniques that can be used."
The traditional method is to use herbicide as a spot treatment when the plant is at the rosette stage but it is often necessary to hand pull the plant when it is in flower as cutting it just encourages it to grow thicker the following year.
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