Sitting in a small, private Oak Bay garden Wylie Thomas gestures to innocuous-looking greenery around him.
The plant is actually a fast-moving invasive, explains Thomas, a contract conservation biologist in the community for nearly a decade.
Shiny geranium was first spotted last year in Oak Bay, he says in a video designed specifically for education on eradicating the invasive.
“It’s a threat to gardens … it can very quickly take over,” he says. “It also is a threat to our native ecosystem. One of the biggest threats to biodiversity and to the survival of rare species is the invasion of exotic plants. We’re particularly concerned about this one, shiny geranium.”
It’s both a rapid spreader and grows well despite sun or shade.
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The patch he showcases in the video was cleared just as it went to seed last year. The annual regrows from seeds self-scattered the previous year – so it returned in full form this spring.
“We’re hoping we can get people throughout Oak Bay and anywhere else in the region to keep an eye out for this plant and to report it if they see it,” he says.
The leaves are shiny, and the stem is turgid and there is a doppelganger – the dove’s foot geranium.
“What I do is look on the underside of the leaf and in the dove’s foot geranium you’ll see a fuzz,” Thomas says.
The shiny geranium has no hairs.
With relatively shallow roots it’s easy to remove, but Thomas hopes people get it before it goes to seed, likely this month. Once removed, it should not go in the compost to stop spread.
In the Capital Regional District, Langford, North Saanich, Otter Point, Saanich, Victoria and Salt Spring Island all host known patches of shiny geranium. To report to the CRD email invasive@crd.bc.ca.
Another easy way to report, is to download the free Report Invasives BC app that allows the user to take a picture and report it, complete with locational information. It then gets uploaded into the provincial database.
Anyone looking for identification help can send a photo to shinygeranium@gmail.com.
