There's a horrible little vine you can find in the hedgerows around here that is called "Mile a Minute Weed" or "Chinese Tear-Thumb." A whole page devoted to it can be found here.This stuff is hell to pull, as the barbs are reversed to rip at your skin.
Mile-a-Minute apparently originated in China, Japan and Korea. In the U.S. it's mostly just found in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania -- at least so far. I expect it will be everywhere before long.
If you're interested in learning a little more about some of the other invasive species and introduced species in the hedgerow (including the red fox, kudzu, rats, multiflora rose, etc.) click here.
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Looking at the list of invasive species I am skeptical that the bubonic plague is a introduced disease, or at least a recently introduced one. I would think it would not be that hard for it to cross over to the west coast of the United States from Asia. There are a number of species that travel between the two areas.
ReplyDeleteWhere I grew up in WV, the mile a minute vine is something to behold. However, I find it only in the moister and warmer areas that are both close to streams and open to the sun. It is just too in the winter, for it to grow on the windswept ridges or in the ravines where direct sunlight exists only at high noon. In that part of the state, the mile a minute isn't as much a problem as Japanese stilt grass, which is gradually taking over the clearing in the forest.
ReplyDeleteYes, Retrieverman, it does seem to like the wetter spots like stream banks!
ReplyDeleteAs for the plague, I know quite a bit about the disease, its history and its wildlife hosts -- enough to consider writing a book. Suffice it to say that we no only know that the plague is a recent foreing arrrival, we actually knopw what ship it came on and on what date!
See here for a few links from this blog >> http://terriermandotcom.blogspot.com/search?q=Bubonic+Plague+San+Francisco that I thinkk you will find interesting and entertaining.
Patrick