I seem to recall a post in here about the removal of Daphnes from parts of Canada, because they were killing native plants.......so my question is, Are certain plants more susceptible to Daphne toxins (if indeed all produce a toxin), more to the point, could a daphne planted next to an Acer Bloodgood kill the Acer (both would be young plants)
Daphne laureola or Spurge Laurel is a knoxious weed in Canada that is super invasive and crowds out and kills native plants. There are other varieties of Daphne which are actually really lovely and not invasive. If it is a Spurge Laurel (see photo here: http://www.biologie.uni-ulm.de/systax/dendrologie/Daphnlaurfw.htm) it probably won't kill the maple but get rid of it! Dig it out and remove all traces of the plant and then wash your hands really well after removing it. -Eric
so its only toxic to us humans and doesn't produce a root toxin that kills other plants? it just crowds out smaller native plants?. I have seen some Daphne laureola here in the UK growing wild, with ivy (it did look like it was evenly matched against ivy)
Yep, that's right. It also isn't remotely invasive here in Britain, it is actually pretty rare, you're very lucky to have it at all (and even more so, if you can keep it alive for more than a few years). The problem with it in Canada is that the various insects, viruses and fungi which keep its population low here were not introduced with it to Canada, so there is nothing to keep it under control there. Same story as rabbits in Australia.
