Japan struggles to weed out plant threatening agriculture, ecosystems

The verdant green leaves and dainty white flowers of the alligator weed are becoming a common sight in waterways across Japan. But while the plant, whose scientific name is Alternanthera philoxeroides, may look innocuous, it is an absolute menace according to Koichi Goka, head of the Invasive Species Research Team at Japan’s National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES). “We first had reports of alligator weed in Japan in Hyogo prefecture in 1989 and it quickly spread from there across...