Foreign Plants. Part 2

its style canyon in the vertigo mountains is a marvelous place to gaze at native plants in a couple of hours hiking on a may or june day you can easily see about a hundred species six foot tall scarlett dough finian's caterpillar sicilia with curved fuzzy purple heads golden back firms how we leave cherries bright red members of the carnation family called indian pinks and much more ms eileen anderson recently trekked up a fire roared into the canyon the hillsides were also covered with a deep pink flower that has for slender diamond shaped petals this is an annual and it's called the elegant clark here and it's one of our sort of later spring wildflower listening is quite surely these are about oh maybe two or three feet here that they can get substantially taller than they are gloriously easy to grow in the garden loved by a variety of animals insects except for the tapestry of blues exhilarating anderson but she also sees some plants she doesn't welcome she pointed again only one with lemon yellow flowers this yellow mustard is actually of

european origin and has spent two california the story goes that when the spanish we're colonizing california that they spread mustard seeds between the nations so that they can find their way by following open yuri owl the mustard road and extend very well here it suited to these conditions and has spread everywhere there must read is one of a suite of plants from the mediterranean basin is tagged along with people and livestock and found are similar climate to be quite hospitable alongside the fire rowed anderson points out other plants that are all too cozy in california receiving patrick hero mediterranean grasses of different sorts and they have basically taken over most all of our native grasslands now so native grasslands in california are a very rare planned community ucla botanist phil rundle says these alien planets and others like the water hunting

giant cain called a rando can do a lot of the damage invasive species are a dramatic potential to change our frequencies firing ten cities they can change a nutrient levels they can't change ecosystem function they can change tiger logic flowing streams there's a variety of well documented problems than they suspicions because that have huge economic damage billions and billions of dollars of cost the us alone one reason some of these invaders do so well here in california is because the pathogens and predators they evolved within their homeland are back and they're not here still lindell says some countries places with similar climates like south africa take aggressive steps to controlling base is essentially treating them like hazardous waste but so far in california there's very little regulation the state now has a few things that really after sharif not to sell but there are state agencies about listings of dangerous in places that were trying to control public education the people are aware what's dangerous and what's not rendell says sometimes ailing implants don't

become invasive right away they hang around benignly for several decades and suddenly become aggressive perhaps because the right paula nader or c disperse or comes along to help them out the number of alien plants making their way to california as likely to climb as global trade and travel increases the research scientist john keeley of the us geological survey says the plants that are already here are more than capable of wreaking havoc mary driver the effect that transition from navy to non native vegetation is fire and it had depth about every time i drive home in california it in portion of the landscape to be on its way to being converted into a graph the current air the urban development expand we find that more and more fires are the idf the most inopportune time in terms of shealy says yes southern california plant communities evolved with fire the detroit dominated areas surrounding cities didn't used to burn as frequently as they do now blame

people for that if you had put in the fiery landscape those plans don't have time enough to recover and emma rudolph the aliens the fees are able to innovate is there a very different life once the navy huge problem for woody plants that take a long time to recover the alien planet are animal and can regenerate very very quickly they are able to even with family peak fire and that doesn't bode well for all the animals that rely on native plants for food and shelter there's a bit of good news in the face of this daunting problem john keeley of the usda's thinks federal land managers with the park and four services are very aware of the problem it's climbing up style canyon botanist signing anderson arrives at a plateau thick with california buckwheat looming orbs of white flowers the rain is definitely contributed to more blooms in general the sheer and although perennial shrubs have really benefitted from the rain but while the native plants thrive they're alien rivals mustard mediterranean grasses and others

are also doing well ready to take over when the next fire comes off the set sail at nine point three kpcc