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杂草的故事 8.2分

By the 1860s the invasive European weeds had reached the far west, and for once, were welcomed. The Gold Rush of 1849 had generated a huge demand for beef, which resulted in over-grazing of the Californian grasslands. This was followed by floods in 1862, and then a two-year drought. When the rain finally came, it was the European invaders that sprouted first and grew most densely, and prevented vast areas of good agricultural land from having their topsoil washed away. At this time there were reckoned to be more than ninety alien weed species established in the state. By the twentieth century two-thirds of the vegetation of the western grasslands was composed of introduced species, mostly European. By the end of the century, of the 500 most significant agricultural weeds in North America, 258 were from the Old World.
The curious thing is that this has been a very one-sided invasion. Although large numbers of American plants have become naturalised in waste places in Britain (Michaelmas daisy and Canadian fleabane are conspicuous examples), not a single North American species has become a troublesome weed of farmland, and few could even be described as invasive.

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