[APWG] New York Times taken over by Aliens? Invasions - Science article

[Craig Dremann]

Dear All,

Here's an interesting Op-ed piece from the NY Times, I think the paper
has been taken over by Aliens?   Sincerely,  Craig Dremann

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Jonathon Rosen

THE horticultural world is having its own debate over immigration, with
some environmentalists warning about the
dangers of so-called exotic plants from other countries and continents
"invading" American gardens. These botanical
xenophobes say that a pristine natural state exists in our yards and
that to disturb it is both sinful and calamitous. In
their view, exotic plants will swallow your garden, your neighbors'
gardens and your neighbors' neighbors' gardens
until the ecosystem collapses under their rampant suffocating growth.

If anything suffocates us, though, it will be the environmentalists'
narrowmindedness. Like all utopian visions, their
dream beckons us into a perfect and rational natural world where nothing
ever changes — a world that never existed
and never will. 

Native plants are the survivalists of the botanical world, and in the
appropriate settings — wilderness areas, home and
botanical gardens, public parks and sidewalks — they bless us with their
beauty and awe us with their tenacity. Our
lives would be poor and grim without the strawberry, cranberry,
columbine and trillium. They've always been here, in
the same way that Native Americans have been; only their arrival and
settlement are more ancient. 

Their presence illustrates a geologic time, about 8,000 years ago, when
the glaciers receded and unimaginably vast
deluges swallowed the surface of the future United States — an airplane
ride over the Midwest reveals enormous lakes
formed by even larger melted ice masses. As the landscape changed, the
botanical world sorted itself out, leaving us
with the hardy "natives." (It should be noted, though, that many plants
now considered natives — like sycamores,
magnolias and cinnamon — arrived from other continents, just as we did.
They are products of adaptation.)

Like human survivalists, natives are also subject to exploitation by the
horticultural equivalent of radical
fundamentalists. The anti-exotics argue that gardens should be populated
exclusively by native plants, as if the exotics
were trying to enter the flower bed illegally. The consequences of such
a stand could be dire. Should we eat no onions
or garlic, apples or lemons; feast our eyes on no magnificent tulips or
roses — all exotics of Eurasian origin? Should
Asians not enjoy their distinctive peppers, tomatoes, beans, squash,
sunflowers and corn — all from the Americas? 

Indeed, the world's most popular root crop, potatoes, started life as a
staple of the Andean people and achieved its first
international fame as a slave food. By the time it reached France, the
"earth apple" was a delicacy likened to truffles;
their flowers were featured in tiaras of court ladies. Exotic indeed.

Should we deprive ourselves of petunias, begonias, impatiens and
hollyhocks — not a one of them "native"? Must
we, on pain of being cast out of the garden as horticultural pariahs,
deny the elephant his peanuts? This wouldn't be
merely ridiculous. It would compare with the denial of human immigration
on grounds that certain ethnic groups breed
in numbers "too prolific" for the existing elite to tolerate. Imagine,
then, a horticultural ruling class. No "invasives"
need apply: let the lily find another valley. Such prohibitions of
exotic plant species demonstrate only an elitist
snobbery that is as dangerous to a free society as it is to a free
botany.

No one, and certainly no gardener, grows truly destructive invasive
plants in his garden. The devastating kudzu in the South, star thistle
in the West and purple loosestrife in the East were accidental
introductions from Asia, most often mixed with the feed and bedding of
livestock. Yet the pro-native, anti-exotic partisans also wish us to
stop enjoying the charms of harmless and beautiful plants like Queen
Anne's lace, yarrow and chicory. Aside from requiring a bit of weeding,
exotics are safe as milk, unless one considers gardening a chore rather
than a passionate hobby. If so, forget
the forget-me-nots.

Let's welcome, as spring arrives tomorrow, as many huddled masses of
flowers, herbs and vegetables as can fit in our
unique melting pot of a nation, unrivaled in its tradition of lush
diversity and freedom to grow rampantly.

George Ball, a former president of the American Horticultural Society,
is the president of the seed and plant company
W. Atlee Burpee & Company.
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