Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Just the Flax, M'am

Two weed-pullers have sailed to the appropriately named "Inaccessible Island" to clear invasive plants from the most unlikely and awkward of places. As reported by allAfrica.com, the workers have to traverse a nearly vertical rock cliff to remove patches of New Zealand flax plants (Phormium tenax). A rapid increase in the rate of spread of the introduced populations over the past decade is what brought attention to the problem. The flax, originally introduced from New Zealand, likely spread from the two other islands in the Tristan da Cunha group, as all three were colonized by humans.

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