kurt in print

after a long silence, the plant fascist of el cerrito speaks again in the letters section of the san francisco chronicle.

this time i was taking the home rag to task for implying that wild fennel makes a dandy host plant for swallowtails.

truth be told the aptly named anise swallowtail has adapted to the highly invasive european fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) out here in the bay area, but that doesn't mean you should be planting the stuff. better you should plant the swallowtail's indigenous host plant, which i believe would be hog fennel.

like i'm always saying, you can't assume that something's good for the environment just because you see one or two species adapting to it. we all know that bears adapt to garbage dumps, but that doesn't mean you should be tossing used handiwipes and last tuesday's stroganoff out your car window as you're driving through the sierras.

in other words, a short term gain for an individual species can turn out to be a long term loss for the environment as a whole. sure if you plant european fennel, you'll make the swallowtails happy for a season or two, but after the fennel overtakes and crowds out other plant species, the animals that rely on those other plant species will suffer. but, hey, read my letter for yourself. (it's at the bottom of the page.)

Kurt "big daddy" True
13 april 2003