All plants and animals are important to the world, but sometimes they end up where they don’t belong. These can bring big trouble to the wildlife of an area. And that stinks!
One invader in Arizona has “stink” right in the name. It’s a plant called stinknet. Officials in Saguaro National Park are asking visitors to help fight off the wandering weed.
Saguaro National Park is a protected desert area near Tucson, Arizona. The park gets its name from the giant saguaro cactuses that grow there. Those prickly plants are the biggest cactuses in the United States, growing to more than 40 feet (12 m) tall with arms that stretch out like tree branches.
Visitors to the park likely spend a lot of time looking up at the tall saguaros. If they glance a little closer to the ground, they may spot a plant with flowers that look like bright yellow balls. This is stinknet.
Stinknet may look cool, but it is not native to Arizona. The plant comes from southern Africa. Experts first found it in Arizona in 1997. Stinknet spread quickly, taking root around the city of Phoenix. The weed grows to more than 2 feet (0.6 m) tall and takes land and away from native plants. True to its name, stinknet also lets out a terrible smell when crushed. And the plant can cause skin rashes and breathing issues in people.
Saguaro National Park wants visitor help too. Stinknet is now starting to appear around Tucson, and the plants are currently flowering in southern Arizona. Stinknet flowers can hold hundreds of seeds each! Park officials hope to get control of the problem before those seeds spread. To do that, they need extra eyes searching for stinknet.
Frankie Foley is a at Saguaro National Park. “We’re asking the public to notify us when they find stinknet plants by going to www.stinknet.org and submitting a report,” the expert said. “We are monitoring those reports daily and contacting landowners to prevent further spread.”
Foley added, “We have a unique right now to work together and protect this desert landscape that we love.”
Updated April 5, 2024, 5:03 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan
