Experts worry plant used for biofuel is bad for environment

NaplesNews.com (FL)
By CHARLIE WHITEHEAD
Originally published 7:40 p.m., Wednesday, December 3, 2008

BONITA SPRINGS — It’s not kudzu and it’s not melaleuca, but the Florida Native Plant Society and others say that the spread of jatropha could be just as troubling.

Kudzu — the so-called vine that strangled the south — was introduced in North America at the Centennial Expo in 1876. The Japanese native was sweet-smelling and fast-growing, promoted for erosion control and planted by the federal government in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

Only decades later did people realize it smothered native species, and there have been efforts to eradicate it ever since.

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