“INVASIVE” SPECIES

“Invasive Plants”: Immigrants Who Nice People are Allowed to Hate

Xenophobia infects perceptions of ecology

Kollibri terre Sonnenblume
9 min readNov 11, 2024

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A Salt Cedar / Tamarisk tree (genus Tamarix, species unknown) at an undisclosed location in southern California. (Photo by the author)

When I first started hearing the rhetoric of the “invasive plant” narrative in the early 2000s, I was living in the progressive bastion of Portland, Oregon. I was taken aback by the vitriol being dished out by people who were otherwise prided themselves on being accepting and nonjudgmental. I concluded that many secularists, lacking a religious dogma, needed a Devil to hate, and “invasive plants” fit the bill.

I find that conclusion overly simplistic now, but it certainly contained a big nugget of truth. Through my research into the topic of “invasive plants” over the last few years — which has included a deep dive into the scientific literature, my own field observations, and many discussions with other people with varying views on the subject — I’ve come to see that the “invasive plant” narrative is more a product of culture than it is of science.

Please note my use of the word, “narrative,” which I’ll be unpacking in a minute.

The “invasive plant” narrative goes something like this: bad plants from somewhere else are harmful because they’re from somewhere else. They out-compete natives. (Some say because they reproduce faster.)…

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