adavisus wrote:

There are all sorts of scaremongering and arbitrary legislation
regarding aquatic plants.

Much of it seems to be bureaucrats and nurseries trying to get
government gravy or a higher price for their nursery interests, jumping
on the 'activist' bandwagon.

Arbitrary? Hardly. "Nursery interests"? In most states where it's illegal
to import Water Hyacinth, it's illegal to sell it. Where do the nurseries
profit? Not from sale of hardy plants, which only need to be purchased
once rather than yearly.

There are _some_ iffy laws - one of the New Englands states banning Jack
Dempsey's, for instance. They claim that they have found JDs that have
survived in the wild over a winter, and perhaps they have, but they can
never thrive in New England (I expect they've been living in warm water
outlets from industrial cooling or sewer). But generally the laws are to
prevent destruction of native fauna and habitat. You only need to see what
purple loosestrife can do to a bog, or water hyacinth to a river, to
understand the effects.
--
derek