| Sorry, no alien invasion
here
(Note: This op-ed to a piece from 1988 published by High Country News is of interest for its early 'take' on the false premise of the 'native / non-native' and 'invasive' Language Deception. Bob Nold calls the author's hand in his op-ed, referring to the original article's statement: '"... "an innocent garden flower could trigger an ecological nightmare." Mr. Nold replies with: "A more plausible scenario would be one in which seed pods from outer space, tended in a secret horticultural facility near Area 51 in Nevada, escape from confinement and turn into man-eaters, devouring every tourist in sight."' A breath of fresh air is this, and almost a decade before the Language Deception came to proliferate congressional bills and the major, muzzled media.)
August 3, 1998
By Robert Nold petuniaman@earthlink.net Lakewood, Colorado High Country News P.O. Box 1090 Paonia, Colorado 81428 970-527-4898 To submit a Letter to the Editor of High Country News (HCN): http://www.hcn.org/lettertoeditors.jsp (website form)
First it was the Yellow Peril, then it was the Russians and Men from Mars, and now we have invasions by hordes of alien plants unwittingly let loose by gardeners.
It's true that Euphorbia myrsinites (donkeytail spurge), which has been cultivated in this region for many years, has escaped from Boulder-area gardens and established itself in some areas. It's not taking over "prairies and foothill meadows." It's not a "fast-moving, aggressive invader." It will not "soon be everywhere."
The article constantly confuses introduced weeds which have invaded (but not "infested') some areas of the Rocky Mountain region with introduced ornamentals, of which Euphorbia myrsinites is the single example.
Evan Cantor seems unclear as to which plants are native and which are not: "...dandelions, salsifies, thistles, chicories, henbit" aren't native plants and don't "possess an ancient claim to their presence here."
The "wild rose" was not introduced by "European gardeners'; there are about a dozen rose species native to the United States.
The term "naturalized" refers to an exotic plant which grows in the garden or in the wild as though it were native. Tamarisk [salt-cedar] is most certainly a naturalized plant.
Contrary to the author's assertion, it's quite possible to have a "waterless garden' -- I have had one, planted with native dryland plants, for many years. The article makes the statement that xeriscape isn't environmentally sound because "saved water gets appropriated for new development." Now, really ... this is absurd. Xeriscape is banned all up and down the Front Range; most developments have covenants that prohibit xeriscaping.
The proliferation of Kentucky bluegrass lawns and the concomitant habitat destruction is surely a far more serious threat to our ecosystems than exotic plants naturalizing in the wild.
The criticism against xeriscape is better leveled against "natives only" gardeners themselves. The facade of plant purity often conceals something less than the environmentally friendly landscapes "natives only" gardeners claim they are promoting; witness a well-known "nativist" garden writer's lavish praise of "natives only" plantings in an Arizona "golf course community."
The threatened "colonization and naturalization" of plants from other dry-climate regions is a fantasy. I have grown about 2,000 species of plants from these regions, and few have shown any "irreversible" tendencies to invade native habitats.
Unfortunately, garden writers who recommend plants from climates similar to our own frequently give the false impression that the plants are perfectly adapted to the climate of the Rocky Mountain region. The majority of these plants need supplemental irrigation in our climate and are really being watered about as regularly as are other garden plants.
About 50,000 species of ornamental plants have been cultivated in the Rocky Mountain region in the last 40 years. The percentage of these that have escaped and are now taking over every inch of available ground is minimal. Plants will only grow where they are adapted; most ornamentals grown in Colorado and elsewhere in the Rocky Mountain region are ill-adapted to survive outside the confines of a garden.
The author claims that "an innocent garden flower could trigger an ecological nightmare." A more plausible scenario would be one in which seed pods from outer space, tended in a secret horticultural facility near Area 51 in Nevada, escape from confinement and turn into man-eaters, devouring every tourist in sight.
http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.Article?article_id=4344
Additional related reading:
"Bob Nold is a member of numerous plant societies, including the Alpine Garden Society and the North American Rock Garden Society (who honored him with its Award for Service), and a regular writer for the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the North American Rock Garden Society and the Colorado Gardener. His monograph on the genus Penstemon (Penstemons, Timber Press 1999) was honored as an Outstanding Academic Book by Choice magazine. Bob enjoys his garden in Lakewood, Colorado, with his wife, Cindy, an artist who shows her own fondness for plants and hawkmoths through her photographs and watercolors." Source: http://www.TimberPress.com/media/getAuthorByID.cfm?AuthorID=8 (There is a very nice interview about columbine with Robert Nold at this URL -- an excellent read!) |