Is a plant (Lythrum salicaria) ponders lust over and
can cause some pretty heated debates on
other pond groups.

It is a gorgeous tall plant with hundreds of
tiny purple blossoms that make millions of seeds.

It is also a dreaded pest plant in wetlands. It will
turn a wetland purple while it crowds out cattails and
other plants that are food plants for wetland critters.
I've watched it work its way down the Yakima River
here, grow all over the delta wetland and into the river banks of the Columbia
River.

Wetland managers hate it. Many ponders lust after it.
(Dig up a plant from a local riverbank and smuggle it home
under cover of darkness ;-)

In 1992 (first I've heard of it) two beetles and
two weevils from Europe were released into seven
states that had problems with it. Now they are in
35 staes and 10 Canadian provences. These critters
can result in a 90 percent elimination of the purple
loosestrife.
More information can be had at www.invasiveplants.net
I found this information in the May/June 2003 issue
of GARDENER magazine.


k30a