Years ago, back in the early 90's, I attended college in the Boston area. I remember as I headed south from the Northeast Kingom through New Hampshire and on into Massachussettes noting many of the beautiful wetlands that I-93 traversed. Once in Mass, the native cat-tails were replaced in mid-summer by a form of vegetaion with beautiful purple flowers. "how amazing", I used to think, "too bad our Vermont welands don't have such an attactive flower".... At the time, I did not realized that the purple flower as Loosetrife, and invasive species from Eurasia.
Loostrife is one of those very successful species that out-competes the native plants such as lilly pads and cat-tails. As it expands, the loostrife tends to completely take over a wetland, choking out these other plants, and actually cutting down on available wetland for waterfowl and other animal life. I have come to hate Looestrife.
Over my years of trips back and forth to Boston, I watched as Purple Loostrife became more and more prevelant along our roadside. By the mid-90's, you could see it outside of Concord, NH. By the turn of the century, it had reached Vermont's borders. Now, we can find it in small clumps here and there throughout the Kingdom's wetlands. If left unchecked, it will eventually consume these beautiful but fragile areas. (note, the photo above was taken outside my office in Littleton, NH-- Just over the river from the Northeast Kingdom).
For more information on Purple Loostrife, and how to manage the weed, check out this website:
http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/lysa1.htm
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