I need to head off to work, but -- a moment of wierd synchronicity and political spookiness --
ok, so last night when I touted "Greener Than You Think," I had NO idea today was the first day of National Invasive Weed Awareness Week. Really. Honestly. I discovered this on my (mid) morning constitutional, which took me down Constitution Ave to the Botanical Garden, where I'm wont to go to look at the Orchid Grove in the wake of the Garden's remodeling last December. Orchid of the day: Nepethes Burdei. Anyway. So, it's National Invasive Weed Awareness Week, so I go into the exhibit room (for this is a National Week with a National Exhibit Room) and I start to pick up literature: a few flyers, a poster (really) illustrated with a darkish conte crayon sketch of a mother elk moourning the loss of her baby, who's lying dead at her feet after munching some diffuse knapweed and yellow toadflax.
But it's the flyer from the Virginia Invasive Vegetation Management Team that really gets to me. Here's some text:
"Exotic. It's Not Fun Anymore.
An Old Way of Thinking
Exotic. It's a word that tantalizes with images of far-off lands and exciting experiences. It's a mindset that eagerly tooks for newness and variation. It's an approach to gardening "that brings added interest." Perhaps it conjures up the erotic. For years our view of exotics has been very positive.
But what's so good about a pathway to death? Around the New World, exotic species have killed or crowded out our natives."
Umm....
So I make my way back to my home, cutting through the grounds of the Capitol, where the jersey barriers are being replaced with permanent, ominous metal gates blocking every entrance. Lots of uniformed personnel are peeking under my hoodie, checking to make sure I'm not an Exotic Species. I keep reading. Under "ways YOU can make a difference," I see that I'm called to "support NPS management efforts to eradicate or reduce the presence of invasives."
Years back, one of my favorite historians of science, Phil Pauly, wrote a piece about the connection between American Nativism and the protests surrounding the planting of Japanese cherry trees in Washington D.C. If I can find that cite, I'll post it.
11:09:37 AM 
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