Plant Eats Baby

Okay so maybe such a headline would never actually happen except for in imaginary productions such as "Little Shop of Horrors" but invasive plants certainly deserve their due respect.

Sure, there's an obvious call to action when some pathogen, snake, or swarm of ants harm people. Plants, however, don't jump out and attack us. They are often a lot more subtle about their invasion and may have more far reaching, long term consequences that harm us on a much larger scale.

Miconia is one such invasive plant that could forever ruin Hawaii. This past week I attended the 2009 International Miconia Conference on Maui. This is the 2nd such conference in the long history of the Miconia infestation here in Hawaii. Miconia (Miconia calvescens) may look pretty but its attractiveness belies its potential to completely wipe out native tropical forests in island ecosystems. Over time it can cause the loss of whole ecosystems (leading to extinctions), increase erosion, cause landslides, and kill the fish in reefs with increased downstream flow of soil into the ocean which can smother the reef and the ocean life within.

What's more is that Miconia prevents water from getting into the soil and reduces the groundwater recharge that we all depend upon.

There has been a lot of good education on the need for Miconia eradication but many people still don't know what it is or how it can have a lasting effect our lives. For the most part, people living on Oahu and Kauai will never see Miconia... and that fact cuts both ways. On the one hand it is great that we may actually eradicate Miconia on these islands but on the other hand it begs the question, "How can we continue to garner public support for the work that we do if they can't see the problem for themselves?"

Maybe it won't take plants attacking humans to get more people supporting Invasive Plant eradication but sometimes I wonder if it couldn't hurt.