A Redditor spotted a beautiful bush along the side of the road and took to the community at r/plantID for help identifying it. Unfortunately, the verdict wasn't great.
The consensus is that the bush was lantana strigocamara, an invasive plant native to Central and South America. It has even made the International Union for Conservation of Nature's list of 100 of the World's Worst Invasive Alien Species. As good as it looks, lantana releases a highly unpleasant odour when crushed.
Invasive species are a huge challenge.
When a plant or animal is moved from its native habitat, it's no longer subject to the checks and balances it evolved with. This provides it an opportunity to outcompete native species in a new habitat and establish a monopoly on vital resources like space, food, and water. With this decline in biodiversity comes a decline in ecosystem services that other life, including humans, depend on.
Invasive species can incur significant economic costs.
In the case of lantana, it can spread into agricultural areas, where it can take over vital grazing areas, and is toxic to livestock. Some have estimated that worldwide, invasive species cause hundreds of billions of dollars worth of economic damage annually. More conservative research has pegged the economic costs over the course of 50 years at a little more than a trillion dollars.
This is why it's generally a better idea to plant native species. They've adapted for the local ecosystem, making them drought-resistant and beneficial to other wildlife, like pollinators.
Luckily, lantana has a hard time surviving cold winters, so it doesn't spread too far north. Reddit commenters were keen to warn the original poster about lantana and its ability to spread.
"It's invasive, that's why it's everywhere in California," said one community member.
"Its highly invasive anywhere. Used to see them all over the place a couple decades back, here in Australia, now they're being phased out coz they just keep growing," replied another.
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