Invasive Species, Rhus Lancea

August 8, 2014 — crime, ignorance, invasive species, tagging, Tucson

Invasive botanical species are like untended social problems. If they are ignored they will take over and eliminate the native species because they are powerful and destructive.  Rhus Lancea is an invasive species that is taking over midtown Tucson.  It was brought here as a landscape plant, but quickly got out of control.  It is a relative of poison ivy, and causes some people to have serious allergic reactions, either respiratory or as a skin rash.  It spreads by producing abundant seeds as well as by spreading underground by suckers.  If there is irrigation water, rhus lancea will be very likely to sprout and grow, taking nutrients and moisture from the native or landscape plants.  Since it develops such a network underground the tree is very difficult to kill.  Cutting it down will not kill it, but will encourage spreading through the roots.  It is like a street gang, very undesirable and hard to eliminate.

I have been thinking about how these invasive plants are like crime.  If everyone ignores crime like tagging, vandalism, and gang activity it sucks the nutrients and value out of the neighborhood.  If drug dealing and other crimes are tolerated they blend into the scene making the whole place less valuable and less safe.  With no awareness, or worse, willful blindness to criminal and anti social activity we can only expect the environment to fill with undesirable behaviors.  We have a vivid illustration of this right outside my front door.  We pay landscaping company to kill our landscaping plants and waste large amounts of water each day.  We (the owners of shares of our HOA)  have just paid to have what was described as a dying mesquite tree removed from our sidewalk.  Since it is not dying and is a rhus lancea, we have paid these gardeners to encourage the growth of all of the children of the tree, that have been left in place.  The stump will probably grow back again too.  If actions we take are based on ignorance we will not arrive at a better situation.  Can you think of situations like this that remind you of government?  Working against our own interests seems to be so common these days.