North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[tanis grif <tanisgrif@yahoo.com>]

Forwarded from another listserv.  There has been enough interest shown here 
about
this topic that I hope it's welcome.
--------------------------------------


Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2007 11:08:03 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Research: Study Shows New Way That Benign Plants Become Invasive

Research article as to why 'tame' plants in Europe arrive in the US and become
invasive.
   
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070227105553.htm   
  (article is available online in the PNAS  http://www.pnas.org/  “Early 
Edition,”
and will be published March 6, 2007, in the journal’s print edition.)
   
  For example, reed canarygrass... brought in over time from various European
regions, creating what we have here.
   
  These multiple introductions, and subsequent interbreeding, create a kind of
biological stacked deck: drawing on genetic variety from across the European
continent, new strains have emerged in the US with higher genetic diversity 
and more
potentially advantageous qualities than their species brethren across the 
Atlantic.
   
  “It’s not that you’re taking the ones in France and moving them to the US 
and
they’re suddenly invasive,” Molofsky said, looking over a green swath of reed
canarygrass growing in a UVM greenhouse, “its that you move some plants, and 
then
you move some from somewhere else and they recombine here to form something 
better,
genetic superstars.”
   
  The result, in America, reed canarygrass has developed traits, like faster
emergence in the spring and larger root biomass, that allow it to become a 
rapid
colonizer. In short, the grass is still the same species, but it has quickly 
evolved
to be invasive.
   
  And this has significance far beyond the headache of reed canarygrass.
   
  Other plants may soon follow this path. “Some in the nursery industry 
argue,‘well,
we can have barberry here, because it’s not invasive in Vermont,’ My point 
is, ‘yes,
not now, but keep introducing it and let it mix and with climate change we’ll 
have
it later,’” Molofsky says. “Just keep planting it out there, and 20 years 
from now
when it’s 2 degrees warmer you’re going to see it in the forest.”
   
  from Univ of Vermont



 
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