Cuckoo Pint

[Mikejac]

Our garden in France is infested with Cuckoo Pint.  I have tried numerous weed killers in an effort to get rid of it from the cultivated areas of the garden and gravel pathways, but to no avail.  This plant seems to be resistant to all known herbicides.  Does anyone know how to get rid of this pest?

Mikejac

[Ford Anglia]

Got any creosote? Dab the plant with that stuff, I guarantee it'll die.

[Monika]

What does Cuckoo Pint look like? We have a weed in our garden (brought in by the contracters when they put in the Fosse) which consits of huge leaves and very long carrot like roots? I wonder if creosote would help to get rid of that!

[Pierre ZFP]

It looks like this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arum_italicum

or this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arum_maculatum

not unattractive in moderation (warning: all parts very poisonous) but I can inagine it's a pain if it's rampant

For information, 'Pint' is pronounced to rhyme with 'Splint' (not beer) from the Olde English 'Pintle' meaning Willy.  I amaze myself sometimes with the useless old rubbish I know.

[Cassis]

I'm sure I read somewhere that you can eat the roots (cooked).  It's also known as Lords and Ladies - if you see a picture of the "pint" inside its spathe you should be able to figure why ...

I would have thought a dose of glysophate followed by another when it reshoots (thick roots, hard to kill) would do it.

I like to see it in the hedgerows and ditches but I would not want it everywhere in the garden, either.  We've got it's beautiful cousin, arum italicum pictum, in our flowerbeds.

[hoverfrog]

we were over-run with the stuff in Wiltshire, which worried me with small children so I had to deal with it.

If flowering or fruiting, pull the cental stalk out.

Treat with roundup or other systemic weedkiller - this will work in the longterm but in my experience you still need to pull out the central stalk as this keeps going even when the leaves die!

Sheep weren't keen, but the lawnmower did wonders...

I'd been fighting the stuff for a couple of years or so, when my aunt kindly gave me some in a pot to add to my plant collection! Needless to say it didn't survive the un-potting :)