Associate Scientist in William L. Brown Center at the Missouri Botanical Garden.
If you can’t beat them, eat them? That’s one idea outlined in Love Them to Death, a new volume edited by Missouri Botanical Garden scientist Wendy Applequist that looks at creative solutions for dealing with invasive species.
Love Them to Death brings together writings by a wide range of experts to look at practical uses for problematic plant species. That includes cooking, herbal medicines, papers, structural materials, basketry, livestock forage, and more.
Applequist, an Associate Scientist at the Missouri Botanical Garden’s William L. Brown Center for Ethnobotany, answered questions on what inspired the book and what she hopes readers will take away from it.
Let’s start with the basics, what makes a species an invasive species?
Invasive species are species that are growing outside of their comfort zone and thriving to a degree that they do harm.
For instance, invasive plants spread in huge numbers and crowd out native species because the herbivores and diseases that limited their growth in their native range don’t exist where they are now. People moved some of these species deliberately because they were useful or attractive, and the fact that they were vigorous in their new home was seen as a good thing—until it got out of hand.
Your background is in medicinal plants, how did invasive species get on your radar?
It can be both empowering and cost-saving to make your own herbal medicines, or to gather wild foods or craft supplies. But most Americans lack access to land where they can gather plants. Many native species are easily wiped out by overharvesting, so landowners or managers won’t allow people to collect them. It may be easier to gather invasive species because nobody values them and they’re often most plentiful in disturbed areas, which may be relatively accessible.
We have unmet needs and unused resources; it seems logical to me to put those two things together. On the flip side, like every botanist, I’ve seen that invasive species can devastate natural communities and we need to find sustainable ways to control them. So many species have been rendered almost extinct by harvesting for commerce that I have to suspect many invasive species’ numbers would decline if they could be harvested aggressively enough.
What inspired you to focus on this topic and compile Love Them to Death?
The project arose from a conversation with my late husband, Bob Fuqua, who gets major credit for inspiration. He said I should write a book about using invasive species. I said I didn’t know enough to do that. The great thing about edited volumes is that you can go and recruit a bunch of people who know more than you do!
Each writes one chapter, and together, you can write a book that has a broader variety of information, ideas, and opinions than any one of you could have written alone.
How did you find the other experts who are consulted in the book?
I had encountered a couple before. Mostly, I searched online and through word-of-mouth for people who had published relevant papers or were doing relevant non-academic work.
Did you know? Ethnobotany is the study of how people use plants for food, medicine, and more.
Ethnobotany is special because it combines respect for both scientific and traditional knowledge. I really wanted this book to reflect that balance. Some of the authors are academics, and others are artists, artisans, and skilled professionals who do hands-on practical work involving plants. They came together to share not only different kinds of specialized knowledge, but a broad variety of attitudes and worldviews. It was a great privilege for me as an editor to work with this unique group of interesting, knowledgeable people.
There are more than 6,500 invasive species in the United States alone. How did you select which ones to include in your book?
For my chapter, reviewing plants with scientific evidence of medicinal benefits, I limited literature searching to species that had reported ecological harms and a significant range in the U.S.
I didn’t impose those restrictions on the other authors. Thus, two chapters on invasivory, the eating of invasive species, digress into fish and other animals. Most authors were only dealing with a limited number of species, which were usually species that everyone would agree were problems.
Then there are a few chapters focusing on uses of just one species: kudzu, taro, Japanese knotweed, and common reed. Those were chosen because they’re well-known invasive species that are also quite useful. And, knowledgeable people were available to write about them. A dozen other species could easily have deserved the same sort of treatment.
Did you know? Common reed is not actually a reed. It is a flowering plant in the grass family.
Some of the book is dedicated to cooking invasive species. Did you try any? Do you have a favorite?
This book mostly contains only general descriptions of how plants are consumed, not detailed recipes. However, a recipe for a weekend breakfast I enjoy in spring is making a “mess” of fried potatoes and onions and a little chopped wild garlic, perhaps with eggs or other protein, and a lot of fresh young dandelion greens added as the green vegetable after the potatoes are soft, and maybe a can of chopped tomatoes. Almost all of us who have lawns have those weeds and they’re easy to recognize.
Interested in cooking with weeds? Learn more in this blog!
Back to your expertise on medicinal plants. What invasive species might readers be surprised to learn have medicinal value?
There are lots!
Some of our most destructive weeds also have medicinal value. Kudzu root has been shown in clinical trials to help people to consume less alcohol. It also contains phytoestrogens, and one compound is being researched in China as a drug to improve recovery from ischemic stroke. The rhizome of Japanese knotweed, also known as itadori, contains far more resveratrol than grapes. So, it is the plant most used to produce resveratrol dietary supplements.
Resveratrol is a plant compound scientists are studying for potential health benefits.
What are some other uses of invasive species that readers can learn about in the book?
There are several chapters on uses of invasive species in arts and crafts. This includes papermaking, dyeing, basketry, and even experimental temporary architecture that creates structures that resemble basketry on a grand scale. There are also chapters on uses of invasive species as livestock feed and biofuel.
While putting the book together, what use of invasive species surprised you most?
I think Kathy Voth’s chapter on teaching livestock to eat weeds.
Kathy is one of those authors who spends most of her time doing great practical work, teaching farmers and ranchers how to teach their animals to eat weeds and slash their feed bills. The most surprising thing to me was that she says you can easily teach livestock to eat several kinds of thistles. To people it would be unthinkable to bite, chew, and swallow one of those horrible plants!
What do you hope readers take away from reading “Love Them to Death?”
I hope they will be impressed by how useful even reviled species can be, while remembering that a healthy ecosystem offers much more value to humans, and by the diversity of independent, human-scale economic and cultural activities described.
Beyond that, most participating authors hope that some readers will be inspired to practical action. Perhaps farmers, craftspeople, chefs, extension agents, or others who have a large local population of some invasive plant might look into ways of making it useful. That may not always be helpful or desirable, as one group of authors argues. But sometimes it might benefit both people and nature.
Eliminating invasive species can seem overwhelming. What are some small actions individuals could take in their everyday life to help?
First, if you have a yard or garden, plant native ornamentals whenever possible. Exotic plants that don’t seem to be a problem, like the Callery pear, can suddenly start causing trouble. Natives also fit better into the local food web, supporting bees, butterflies, or birds. Of course, if you see any invasive species sprouting as weeds, try to kill them fast!
Second, outdoor recreation is something we all deserve to enjoy. But when we travel for it, we can move other species by accident. Disease-carrying beetles hide under the bark of firewood. Fragments of water weeds cling to boats and boat trailers. Burs attach to our clothes or pack and fall off miles later. We collect berries and drop a few when we eat them. Seeds stick in the mud in our boot soles. So, clean up all your gear and equipment between excursions. And whenever you knowingly handle an invasive species, be careful not to drop any parts that could sprout somewhere else.
Finally, local parks and reserves fighting invasions may have volunteer days when you can join others to spend a morning ripping up bush honeysuckle or winter creeper. The park rangers really appreciate the help, and it’s kind of satisfying to lay waste to a population entirely guilt-free!
Get your copy!
Copies of Love Them to Death are available through the Missouri Botanical Garden press and on grounds at the Missouri Botanical Garden in the Garden Gate Shop.
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