30/06/2026
Rotary Club helps local volunteers group Midhurst Greens
to “pull,pull,pull” the invasive Himalayan Balsam plant
This is what it looks like close up Mellings Vulgaris Gigantus Bella*
Reaching up to 10 feet in one season, it spreads along waterways
and riverbanks at an alarming rate and is dense enough to totally
outcompete all native species as it takes over the existing habitat
The result is that the subsoil is weakened particularly at the water’s
edge and the existing habitat- home to many insect and bird species as well as small mammals and invertebrates ,is taken over and the undergrowth supporting so many different native flora and
creatures dies back
The good news is once pulled riverbanks can and do recover as the
original plant species reclaim the area.
The River Rother here in Midhurst in West Sussex has endured many such invasions of this newcomer originally seen by our Victorian forefathers as an ornamental attraction together with
Rhododendrum another unwanted bully boy of the plant world.
These invaders have spread far and wide.
Here the plant has spread right along the length of the Rother ,
growing out from and beyond the river bank so the problem of
elimination is more a battle of containment rather than eradication
,pulling in as many pockets where it is most dense.
In this area , the South Downs National Park initiated work with local volunteer groups and Rotary has been an active member of this team for the last five years .The work done here in Midhurst has resulted in some marked success in containing the spread and recently other
volunteer groups are tackling selected stretches of the Rother such
as the Friends of the South Downs ,the Western Rivers Trust ,Eco
Rother Action Timing is a key factor to be most effective ,the uprooting needs to be completed before the plant and its hundreds of seeds get airborne
an individual plant can pop and release as many as 800 seeds into
the air at a time
From the volunteer’s viewpoint the good news is that timing dictates this is an early summer task so pleasant weather is at least warm if sometimes wet and as an added bonus the plant uproots quite easily then cast aside and left to simply decompose. Ideally the pull should be completed by end of June
The Midhurst Green Volunteers also organise mornings when keen
students from the nearby Midhurst Rother College set about the pull with great gusto in adjacent meadows.
Michael Balmforth
