Invader on the Badlands

Invader on the Badlands. Theodore Roosevelt National Park. , In 1909 an aggressive newcomer showed up on the Dakota grasslands. Originally, from Europe, leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) prefers the prime real estate of the badlands – streambeds, wooded draws, and drainages – and has earned its reputation as the most invasive of the over sixty alien plants now found in this national park. When native North Dakota flora are crowded out by leafy spurge, the animals that depend on them for food and cover – bison, elk, and cattle – have to go elsewhere., No respecter of boundaries, leafy spurge carpets croplands, grazing lands, and park lands alike throughout the Northern Plains., Today every section of the United States has its own counterparts to leafy spurge: the South struggles with all-encompassing kudzu, New England has seen purple loosestrife choke aquatic areas, and Johnson-grass poses big problems on the south central plains. It’s a biological crisis that crosses the continent – a green invasion., Leafy spurge may grow to be three feet tall, and its milky-white sap is irritating to the skin. A profusion of hardy seeds grow from these yellow-green flowers, contributing to leafy spurge’s unyielding conquests., A deep and extensive system of roots gives leafy spurge a double-barreled survival strategy – new plants shoot up from the roots as well as from seeds. Now growing over a million acres in North Dakota alone, leafy spurge has the potential to double its holdings every ten years.