From Yahoo News:Oriental Bittersweet was an exotic foreigner still found mostly in East Asia when the New York Botanical Garden planted its first specimen in 1897.
Today, it is everywhere. The shrubby vine is common in woodlands and fields in 21 states, ranging from North Carolina, to Maine, to Illinois.
The American Bittersweet, meanwhile, has been in a slow decline.
Once common across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., the native version of the plant still is around, but it has vanished from many areas now dominated by its hardier, faster-breeding Asian cousin.
The rise and fall of the two plants has been chronicled by the Botanic Garden as part of a 20-year study that offers a dispiriting outlook on the future of some native flora.
So far, the project has identified 50 native species that have disappeared from metropolitan New York during the last 100 years, and others that have become far less abundant due to factors including the destruction of their habitat, pollution and competition from foreign interlopers.
In some areas, the landscape is also becoming less biologically diverse.
14 comments:
This article is a perfect metaphor for another invasion by foreign species, endangering the native flora. What could I possibly be referring to?
Maybe if we all reclassified ourselves as "endangered native plants", the Federal government will finally do something about this problem, ya think?
Nah!!!!........
The spreading of invasive exotics still goes on today - nurseries and garden centers still sell (irresponsibly) plant species that are considered invasive, such as purple loosestrife which is choking our waterways. The average citizen unwittingly plants these species and contributes to the problem. Education is key to helping curb further spread.
Just like the ASIAN LONG HORNED BEETLE that's been destroying the local ecosystem.
Fireworks and cannibals.
Why is it that everything from Asia has mutant like powers to destroy everything in its path?
Long-horned beetles, Tiger Mosquitos, Swine Flu, Bird Flu...etc
The list goes on.
Everything that comes out of Asia = death and destruction. Such a savage place.
"Maybe if we all reclassified ourselves as "endangered native plants", the Federal government will finally do something about this problem, ya think?"
lol
Long-horned beetles, Tiger Mosquitos, Swine Flu, Bird Flu...etc
Snakehead fish
Actually a large majority of the most useful ornamentals and agriculturally valuable plants come out of Asia too, including Camelias, roses that have a second blooming season in September, cherry trees, dogwoods and thousands of others.
That anti-Asian crack was one of the most ignorant voiced here in a long time.
"Once common across the eastern two-thirds of the U.S., the native version of the plant still is around, but it has vanished from many areas now dominated by its hardier, faster-breeding Asian cousin."
"That anti-Asian crack was one of the most ignorant voiced here in a long time."
So reading comprehension is not your strongsuit??!!?! Of course we mustn't even think about the lead paint in Chinese toys or the contaminated construction material that is causing peoples' homes to be destroyed. What anti-Asian sentiment. Sorry no time to be sentimental when the concerns are REAL!!!
The second post by an Anonymous person voiced my concerns as well.
The nurseries in our nabs supply what they think will sell and what sells is not what's best for our gardens.
My biggest beef is people planting beautiful small shrubs and trees in places where they do not belong. The do not care at all that the tree will mature in a couple of years and therefore outgrow the crack in the driveway that it was planted in. They see nothing wrong with ripping it out of the earth every few years and throwing it away.
Anonymous said: "So reading comprehension is not your strongsuit??!!?! Of course we mustn't even think about the lead paint in Chinese toys or the contaminated construction material that is causing peoples' homes to be destroyed. What anti-Asian sentiment. Sorry no time to be sentimental when the concerns are REAL!!!"
wrong thread. (See title of thread for clue to what thread is about.)
wrong thread. (See title of thread for clue to what thread is about.)
Babs never fails to disappoint!
It's ALWAYS about Babs!
"Everything that comes out of Asia = death and destruction. Such a savage place."
Seems to me like things that come out of Asia are heartier and more able to adapt to a changing environment. While the native flora is so used to one kind of environment, it perishes when there is any minor change.
How's that for a metaphor?
Written by someone who doesn't understand how ecosystems work.
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