Terrestrial Terror Round 1: Plant peril

Alias: The Purple Plague

Legal name: Lythrum salicaria

Home Turf: Eurasia, from Great Britain to Central Russia, and Asia, including Japan, Korea, Southeast Asia, northern India and the northern Himalayan region

U.S. Fighting Debut: Early 1800s in the United States; 1869 in Lake Ontario (Great Lakes)

Agent: Ballast water and canals. Also spread by wind, mud adhering to wildlife, livestock, vehicle tires, boats and people.

Preferred Great Lakes fighting arena: All eight Great Lakes states

Weight/Size class: Can grow up to 8 feet tall. Forms social cliques of 5-foot-tall plants

Fighting Skills:

• This tall and striking purple plant uses its beauty as a deadly tool. It entices unsuspecting horticulturists to use it for landscape and bee-keeping projects.
• The aggressive and competitive purple loosestrife forms a dense net that choke out native grasses and flowering plants and destroy habitat for waterfowl and other wildlife at impressive speeds.
• While it prefers the rich, highly organic soils, it can settle anywhere and withstand up to 50 percent shade and shallow flooding.

Life Expectancy: The plant dies quickly each fall; decomposing leaves can negatively impact natural wetland function and animal populations that feed on decaying plant matter.

Offspring: Flowers 8-10 weeks after spring growth; seeds can mature even if submerged for two to three years.

Alias: Colonel Mustard

Legal name: Alliaria petiolata

Home Turf: Europe

U.S. Fighting Debut: 1800s

Agent: Originally used in the U.S. for food and medical uses.

Preferred Great Lakes fighting arena: All Great Lakes states and provinces.

Weight/Size class: 3 to 4 feet high.

Fighting Skills:

• Takes advantage of disturbed areas where trees have been removed such as trails and roadsides.
• A rapid sprawler, in some areas in Illinois its recorded spreading up to 120 feet per year.
• One the Colonel decides to put down roots, its committed, and becomes a permanent resident of that plant community.
• Displaces native plants and causes lower plant diversity, while hogging the ground layer of the ecosystem.
• The presence of garlic mustard can change the composition of habitats like growing taller than native plants and butterflies mistaken lay their larvae on.

Life Expectancy: Two years.

Offspring: One plant produces between 50 and 7,900 seeds. Seeds remain viable in soil for up to 5 years.

Alias: The Knapster

Legal name: Centaurea stoebe

Home Turf: Europe

U.S. Fighting Debut: Late 1800s

Agent: Accidentally either through contaminated seeds or ballast water.

Preferred Great Lakes fighting arena: All Great Lakes states and provinces.

Weight/Size class: 3 to 4 feet tall.

Fighting Skills:

• This plant has a toxic personality because it’s phototoxic – toxic to other plants.
• Don’t let this plant get under (or on) your skin because it can cause skin irritation in humans.
• With no sense of personal space, this weed crowds out other plants like those that livestock eat.
• Home is where it sets its roots. This plant takes advantage of various habitats like Great Lakes dunes, road ditches, railroad beds, prairie sites, and oak and pine barrens.
• Knapweed infestations can increase surface run-off and sedimentation in some areas.

Life Expectancy: About two years. But seeds in the ground remain capable of germinating for up to 7 years.

Offspring: An average plant creates 1,000 seeds a year.

Alias: The Bark Butcher

Legal name: Cryptococcus fagisuga

Home Turf: Europe

U.S. Fighting Debut: Michigan in 2000 and Wisconsin in September 2009

Agent: Accidental introduction by an unknown agent.

Preferred Great Lakes fighting arena: Michigan, Wisconsin and Ontario

Weight/Size class: 1 mm long

Fighting Skills:

• The Beech scale isn’t a “fun-guy” at all. The invasive critter feeds on tree sap, which paves the way for destructive fungi to invade unsuspecting trees. The resulting condition is referred to as the “Beech Bark Disease,” a growing problem in Great Lakes states.
• Dead trees ravished by the disease are a threat to campers. Although necessary, it’s difficult and costly to remove infested trees and branches.
• As Beech scales are feeding on tree sap, their legs become stuck to the surface. They spent their last moments tragically trapped by their own gluttony.