Page 28 - ARUBA TODAY

A28 SCIENCE
Thursday 16 November 2017

‘Super invader’ tree hits South, but flea beetle may be hero

By STACEY PLAISANCE Plant Health Inspection Ser- plant specialist at Auburn
Associated Press vice has been working on University. “Storms, floods,
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The an environmental impact construction sites, logging
tallow tree, a “super in- assessment, which will in- sites, anything that disrupts
vader” with toxic leaves clude a public comment the environment will give
and no natural enemies in period. If approved, the an invasive like tallow an
North America, is conquer- bugs could be released opportunity to take over.”
ing the South. sometime in 2018. Mean- The help can’t come too
Overtaking forests from Tex- while, researchers in Louisi- soon for the keepers of
as to Florida, tallows grow ana are studying tallows to America’s suffering for-
three times faster than gain a better understand- ests. Tallows grow into fully
most native hardwoods, ing of the beetle’s effec- mature trees in just three
and each one casts off tiveness once they are let years, far outpacing native
100,000 seeds a year. loose. maples, oaks, cypress and
Controlled burns haven’t Benjamin Franklin sent tal- elms. Their leaves are toxic
stopped their spread, nor low seeds from London to to some animals, and they
have herbicide sprays from a friend in Georgia in the cast off litter that changes
helicopters. Cutting them 1700s, but genetic testing soil chemistry and disad-
down works only when cleared the founding fa- vantages competitors.
each stump is immediately ther of blame for the kind “Chinese tallows are very
doused with chemicals. of tallows growing so ag- competitive, and they
Harvesting them for biofuel gressively today — those have no natural preda-
remains more a promise trees were apparently in- tors here like in their native
than a practical solution. troduced by federal biolo- China,” said Karan Rawlins,
Some scientists say intro- gists around 1905, accord- an invasive species spe-
ducing a flea beetle from ing to research led by Evan cialist at the University of
the tallow’s native habitat Siemann, an evolutionary Georgia’s Center for Inva-
in eastern China may be This Aug. 1, 2017 photo shows a Chinese tallow tree branch at biologist at Rice University, sive Species & Ecosystem
the best alternative. the Audubon Louisiana Nature Center in New Orleans. INSET: that was published in The Health. “Very few if any in-
Yes, they’re aware of This undated photo provided by the United States Department of American Journal of Bota- sects recognize it as a food
“nightmare scenarios” with Agriculture shows a flea beetle at the USDA/ARS Invasive Plant ny in 2011. source, so it has basically
Research Laboratory in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
other non-native plants Associated Press U.S. Forest Service data become a super invader.”
and bugs, environmental show tallow now spreading Also known as the popcorn
scientist Michael Massimi its entire life-cycle on one National Estuary Program across 10 states. Its growth tree and candleberry tree,
said. plant, he said. along the Louisiana Gulf nearly tripled in Texas in tallows have been planted
But he also points to success “Importing an organism to Coast. the last two decades, and widely since their first seeds
stories, such as the aquatic help control another organ- In this case, the flea beetle increased 500 percent in arrived. Coveted as orna-
weevil that munches on gi- ism right off the bat doesn’t (Bikasha collaris) generally Louisiana, where its higher mentals for their vibrant fall
ant salvinia, a floating fern sound very intuitively smart ignores other plants as it tolerance for salinity en- foliage, they have seeds
from Brazil that had been to do, but it turns out that eats the roots and leaves ables it to crowd out moss- encased in small green
clogging waterways in Flor- especially with insects and of the tallow (Triadica se- covered bald cypress in capsules that split when
ida and Texas until its insect plants, they’ve co-evolved bifera), a host-specific ten- swamps and bayous. Pop- ripe, revealing a small clus-
enemy was brought in. The over many millions of years, dency tested on about 150 ulations also are up along ter resembling a puffy ker-
weevil underwent a similar and in a lot of cases, the other plant species in a the Atlantic coast, from nel of popcorn. Their oils
line of testing through the insect is very host-specific,” decade of laboratory work Florida to the Carolinas. have been used in candle
U.S. Department of Agri- said Massimi, the invasive in the U.S. and China, re- “Tallows take advantage of and soap-making, and
culture, and like the flea species coordinator for searchers said. disturbances,” said Nancy beekeepers like their boun-
beetle, the weevil spends the Barataria-Terrebonne The USDA’s Animal and Loewenstein, an invasive tiful nectar.q