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This page brings you the latest news on PlantRight and the effort to prevent horticultural invasions in California.

New Delta invader, spongeplant, threatens to clog waterways, pumps
December 21, 2011

By Mike Taugher - Contra Costa Times

An invasive weed just now taking hold in the Delta could clog water delivery pumps and marinas on a scale never seen here, and state officials say they are nearly hamstrung in trying to deal with it.

Few have even heard of the new threat, South American spongeplant, because it has been found only recently and in just a few places, all in California.

But what they have seen so far has alarmed experts.

"Your jaw drops at what's going to happen," said Lars Anderson, a weed scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's agricultural research service. "The weeds don't stop."[...]

To read the full story, click here: http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_19587256

UC Master Gardeners Help Defend California Gardens From Invasive Species, One Nursery Center at a Time
December 12, 2011

Author: Pamela M. Geisel, UC Master Gardener Statewide Coordinator

penisetum setaceum, green fountain grass, invasive grass Working in concert with the California Nursery industry and PlantRight, the UCCE Master Gardeners participated in an on the ground nursery survey to track the retail market for “garden related” invasive plants in California.

This is the 2nd year in which more than 140 Master Gardener (MG) volunteers conducted the survey of over 200 randomly selected retail nurseries.[...]

To read the full story, click here: http://ucanr.org/blogs/blogcore/postdetail.cfm?postnum=6371

"Non-Invasive" Cultivar? Buyer Beware
October 10, 2011

Cultivars of popular ornamental woody plants that are being sold in the United States as non-invasive are probably anything but, according to an analysis by botanical researchers published in the October issue of BioScience. Tiffany M. Knight of Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and her coauthors at the Chicago Botanic Garden write that the claims of environmental safety are in most cases based on misleading demographic evidence that greatly underestimates the plants' invasive potential.

To read the full story, click here: http://www.aibs.org/bioscience-press-releases/111007_non-invasive_cultiv...

Weeding on a Herculean Scale
October 2, 2011

Spanish broom removal, Katie VanZint

The following LA Times article highlights the efforts of US Forest Service employee Katie VinZant to remove weeds like the invasive garden plant, Spanish Broom, from the hillsides of the Angeles National Forest.

See the video and accompanying article here: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-weeds-20111003,0,441230.story


Sure, some invasive species are pretty ... until they kill off their neighbors
May 20, 2011

This horror story starts so innocently. You bring home from the nursery a pretty little flower or a pert green vine. You give this new plant a home in your garden. Water it, feed it and watch it grow.

And grow and grow. It's wondrous how it thrives.

But then, this single plant overwhelms its neighbors, expanding like magic to wipe out the competition. It strangles bushes, topples fences and can invade the house as it grows out of control.

"The British have a term for them: garden thugs," said Don Shor of Davis' Redwood Barn Nursery. "That's exactly what they are."

To read the whole story, click here: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/05/21/3634363/beat-garden-thugssure-some-inva...

Today's garden plants can be tomorrow's invasives
April 17, 2011

By Ilsa Setziol

On a misty summer morning, ecologist Christy Brigham sinks down to the sand at Point Mugu State Park, part of the patchwork of federal, state and private lands in Los Angeles County's Santa Monica Mountains. She watches a darkling beetle forage among rare dune plants -- lacy, lavender sand verbenas and beach primroses, which resemble large buttercups. When Brigham came to this area eight years ago to work for the National Park Service, she thought she'd become an expert on plants like these, part of the region's unique Mediterranean-climate flora. But instead, she's spent most of her time dealing with common plants, many of them fugitives from local gardens and nurseries. She points out a thicket of fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) nodding its blond, tufted seed-heads in the breeze. It's already overtaken some of the dune plants and is closing in on more. Fountain grass, an invasive from North Africa that became popular in California gardens in the 1990s, is "very drought-tolerant and can grow in a lot of different habitats," Brigham explains. "I've seen it expand massively. It's just everywhere."

To read the whole story, click here: http://www.hcn.org/issues/43.6/todays-garden-plants-can-be-tomorrows-inv...

How the Eucalyptus Came to California: A Cautionary Tale
January 15, 2011

It seems harmless enough; how can releasing just a few plants or animals into a new area hurt anything? But again and again, we’ve seen just how devastating introducing a foreign organism can be, whether it was on purpose or inadvertent. This has led to declining populations of bats, honeybees, and amphibians, among others, and explosive population increases among garden snails in California. Even when it doesn’t look like the non-native organism is doing any harm, it’s still tilting a biological scale that had carefully balanced itself over millennia.

When we think of organisms being introduced to new lands and wreaking havoc upon the natives, animals more readily come to mind than plants do. But the often over-looked plant invaders have significantly sculpted the California landscape to become what we know it to be today...

To read the whole story, click here: http://www.independent.com/news/2011/jan/15/how-eucalyptus-came-california/.

Bad Seeds, Part 2 - Invasive plants in your local nursery
November 23, 2010

About two dozen non-native plants have escaped Southern California gardens and are threatening a number of the state's plants and animals. Not only are these invasive plants very difficult to control, they are on sale in local nurseries.

The problem is visible high in the San Gabriel Mountains, above Sierra Madre, where Sturtevant Falls spills into Big Santa Anita Canyon. For more than a century, people have come to this secluded spot to escape the city.

To read the whole story, or to listen to the recording, click here: http://www.scpr.org/news/2010/11/23/21166/bad-seeds-part-2-invasive-plan...

Invasive weeds and seeds are destroying Southern California's flora
November 23, 2010

Click on the following link for a terrific interview with Ilsa Setziol, an environmental journalist, about horticultural invasive plants in California: http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2010/11/23/weeds-not-seeds/

Battle against invasives begins at home
August 4, 2010

Nurseries play a role in spreading weedy non-natives

Gardeners love to grow French broom. Its slender branches and vibrant yellow flowers grow easily. The nursery industry also likes the pretty shrub because it germinates easily and produces seed prolifically. When a successful non-native variety like French broom comes along, growers cultivate the plant and it tends to do well. Really well.

Nonendemic plants thrive because they have few competitors to curb excessive growth and “keeping (them) in your yard is difficult,” said Robert Dolezal, executive vice-president of the nursery trade organization California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers.

To read the whole story, click here: http://www.hmbreview.com/news/article_cfd1c6e4-d6b5-5daa-ae9e-854e3993e4...