Invasive Plants in China

Scientists from the South China Botanical Garden have recently identified a vine which has been troubling farm workers near Guangzhou for the past five years. Merremia boisiana, a rapidly growing vine in the morning glory family, can climb and smother ten-metre tall trees. The plant is native to tropical areas adjacent to Guangdong Province, but had not been seen in the region before.

Every method of mass control tried on the invader has so far been unsuccessful; labourious manual removal has been the only effective way found to kill the invader, but the roots are still very difficult to eradicate. Researchers are considering the introduction of natural enemies from the regions where the vine is native, but are wary of the possibility of creating new invaders that could plague crops in the region.

Merremia boisiana joins a list of at least 400 invasive species in China. Some of these foreign organisms were introduced as agricultural crops; others were brought in unintentionally. Other examples include Eichhornia crassipes (water hyacinth), introduced from South America in the 1950s as feed for livestock and Solidago canadensis (goldenrod) likely introduced from North America as an ornamental in the 1930s.

Economic losses caused by invasive species in China are estimated to be US$7 billion annually. A three-day international workshop organized by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences to develop recommendations for the Ministry of Agriculture was held in November 2004.

Links:

• Pretty plant with deadly legacy from Chinadaily


• Invasive Plant Threatens Vegetation in Yunnan from China Internet Information Centre


• Scientists to stop invasive plants from Chinadaily


• Invasive Species in China — An Overview a technical paper by XIE Yan, LI Zhenyu, William P. Gregg, LI Dianmo. 2000. Invasive Species in China -- An Overview. Biodiversity and Conservation 10(8): pp.1317-1341.

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 2:20 PM on January 19, 2005