A plant native to Asia sprouts. It is pulled from it’s native waters and shipped to an aquarium wholesaler in South Florida. It is bought by a family in a goldfish bowl along with some gravel, and a small goldfish. The goldfish is forgotten during the family vacation, the goldfish dies, and is buried at sea, along with the contents of the bowl.The plant from the fish bowl survives, and likes it’s new home. It produces more plants, which, in turn, produce even more, now growing exponentially. An out of state boater doesn’t clean his boat well after a fishing vacation to the area, and travels back to his state with a hitch hiker or two. These plants survive the trip, and find a new home in the first lake the boater puts into.

They like the new lake, and thrive. More boaters do the same through various parts of the country. The plant becomes the dominant species in it’s new homes, and gradually eliminates all other plants in these lakes. the small fish that enjoyed the new cover in it’s early stages, now have lost the plants that support the micro invertebrates that fed them. They disappear. The larger fish that survived by eating the smaller fish, now begin to dwindle. Other animals that consumed the larger fish, and some of the now missing native plants for survival, now move to other areas, and populations decrease.

Fishermen, who once thought that the cover provided by the invaders was good for fishing, now find their favorite spots devoid of fish, and move to other spots, possibly taking the predator with them along with their sport fishing dollars, and the local bait and tackle shops close. This strains the local economic resources, and some local services are no longer available.

The animals who once fed on the fish, have moved away, no longer eat another of the invasive plants (brought here on purpose, and heretofore, seemingly dormant) in the forest, which now takes over the sub canopy, and eliminates the food that deer used for browsing. Scarce food, and unusual disease (brought on by lack of nutrients from some of the now defunct native species) force the dwindling whitetail population to move out of the area. Hunting and the tourism trade in the area now cease.

The proprietors of the local hunting and fishing store close down shop and move to South Florida where they open a small aquarium shop, no longer able to survive in their native area.

They can no longer pay into their children’s college funds, and one of the children, who was destined to discover a cure for cancer, turns to petty theft to help support his family. The cure is lost forever. Little Timmy is bound for a life of crime, and the cancer cure was found in a plant that existed only in a small pond in his native home, which was destroyed by the invasive aquatic plant.

A little heavy on the pathos, perhaps, but not far from the truth! This fictitious(?) story illustrates some of the problems related to exotic plants and loss of biodiversity.

• Exotic plants move. They do not stay in the same area forever, and they have many means of locomotion.

• Each change in an ecosystem brings about other changes, which in turn, bring about other changes…

• These changes eventually effect the human population economically and in other ways.

Learn more about our dwindling native species population and biodiversity.

A growing invasive species problem.

Landscape plants join the invasion.

I mention these in particular, because they were once used as landscape plants, and even after release into the native flora, remained relatively low profile for the majority of my life, until now! Their seeming dormancy for years underscores one of the problems with non native flora. They may be innocuous, until conditions change slightly. Weather patterns, symbiotic relationships between newly introduced flora, and other factors may turn them from small sleeper cells, to major armies!

Bigger problems, mega invaders.

Those are the little problems, which amount to large problems when taken together. The serious problems are such plants as Kudzu, from China, Giant Salvinia , and Water Hyacinth from South America, Hydrilla, and Eurasian Milfoil from Europe, Asia, and Africa.

These plants have had relatively short times in the Southern U.S., but have caused colossal difficulty, costing billions in damage and control efforts during their short stay. Kudzu, like almost all such invaders, was relatively tame in the Northern portions of the country, where it was imported as a forage plant. When it was introduced into the South for forage, and erosion control, things changed. The warmer temperatures, fertile soils, high humidity, and longer growing seasons sent it into a growing frenzy, eating millions of acres as it grew. The same is true of the other plants mentioned above.