I just found this article on one of our local TV station websites

"ST. PAUL, Minn. - The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is asking for the public's help in eliminating a toxic weed showing up in eastern parts of Minnesota.
Grecian foxglove is not native to North America. The plant came from central and southern Europe and is known to be growing in parts of Washington, Dakota and Wabasha counties.
Officials say the weed is poisonous, and both fresh and dried plant parts are toxic. The plant's leafy portions could be mistaken for lettuce or other leafy greens."

When I started to do some Googling, I found a seed source claiming the following:

"Holder of the Royal Horticultural Society's prestigious Award of Garden Merit (AGM), this unusual foxglove is well-worth trying in a shady, well-drained spot in the garden."

Has anyone else heard of warning in regards to growing this plant in your state? I don't do foxgloves because they don't survive the winter for me, so I find it very odd this one is becoming a problem in our state. It sure must be hardy. I also find it odd this plant was actually given an award by the RHS. Is it a common occurrence for something considered a noxious weed in one part of the word to by given an award?

It really does have a pretty flower.

Kevin

I'm spending time reacquainting myself with GW forums beyond Hot Topics and see that people can be as afraid of their plants as they are of offending via personal cleanliness and smell. Think you participated in one of our American obsession to be antiseptic threads. In our confused dalliance in the plant kingdom, I suppose it follows that desired plants be non-toxic, non-thorny, non-smelly, non bee attractive, non this and that so children and pets are perfectly safe. Oh, and maintenance free.

Not a put down. Good information on these forums - much of it imparted through the experience of those who were initially willing to dig a hole and put something in it.

Campanula - You bring up some good points. I guess you're right about the garden award thing. How could any organization possibly take into account how a plant is going to behave throughout the world?

Toxicity - I don't know about that one. Yes, the statement about this possibly being mistaken for lettuce is pretty darned ridiculous, but if indeed this plant or any non-native plant is poisonous to livestock when eaten, that can be a pretty big darned deal around here. We do raise a lot of critters. I guess the question would be how poisonous? Drop dead poisonous or just kind of upset stomach poisonous?

I understand what you're saying about the nationalistic concerns and Lord knows we do have a segment of our population completely engulfed in the nationalistic thing - not necessarily over plants however. For me, if that's what's going on when it comes to protecting native plants - it doesn't bother me. Protect away. It's not like we don't have a bazillion other options as to what we can grow in the garden.

Duluth mentioned the loosestrife problem. Then there's the buckthorn problem. If you've ever seen a beautiful, natural wooded area completely engulfed in that crap to the point where almost nothing else low to ground can grow because it just can't compete - well, it's pretty darned heartbreaking. Buckthorn is certainly on our States Invasive Plant list, so I'll stay away from anything else they put there to.

Kevin

It can take a long, long time for the general public to become aware. There is a plant that grows in parts of California with pretty purple-flowers. This is a native plant, not something that was introduced. Yet, many people that have lived here for an extended amount of time, and explore the wilder areas of the state, still aren't aware of the consequences of cuddling up to Poodle-dog.

And the learning curve of the public for introduced plants is probably much slower than for natives. I don't know if the introduction of this plant is as serious as they make it sound, but thinking that it has anything to do with "...their concerns are actually symptomatic of wider, more exclusive, faintly nationalistic concerns..." has me wondering about the toxicity level of the Hot Topic forums. lol

There was a story about this plant on the local news tonight. The filming was done at one of our nature conservancies and showed an actual field of this stuff. It was really beautiful, but clearly this isn't a case of a few plant here and there. At this conservancy at least, it grows so well it's crowding out native species.

According to the naturalist who only wears protective gloves when pulling the plant, some people are very sensitive to the toxins which can be absorbed through the skin and heart problems can be the result.

The general consensus seems to be this was a plant in someones garden and it escaped.

It still blows my mind there is a digitalis out there that apparently doesn't need coddling and will grow with abandon in Minnesota. Not my experience AT ALL.

Kevin

One thing to think about in comparing Europe to the US is the amount of wild land that isn't gardened and this land can be invaded. I live close to a 3000 acre park, and a couple 8000 acre ranches. No one is out their weeding. Invasives are a problem. They blow in from the suburbs. They get brought in in hay bales. That is how I got Johnson grass. Birds bring vine berries.Yellow star malta thistle has taken over 15 million acres in California and it causes horses to get a neurological condition that keeps them from swallowing so they chew and chew and die of starvation. IyT is in the cattle guard and on my list to poison.

One can drive through States and states of Kudzo and then one enters the Mile a minute hanging forests of west virginia,virginia and Kentucky and then the Appalachians full of multiflora rose and Jappanese knotweed. It is sad to see the landscape in distress.

I have an fragrant mimosa in my yard. It is a native and it Makes A LOT of seed but there's a bug that lives and bores into almost every seed and lays an egg or something in each one. I would not advise taking it to England without a good population of that bug. It is hard to pull out with a wicked deep root and spreads by its root too. It is in balance here, and I love its fragrance, but I can see that if that bug wasn't here, it would be a bugger.

The thing about invasive lists is they are the plants that are already out of the gate. The ones that are just gathering steam have not been addressed. It gets so confusing because a plant van be a real problem in one place and not be a problem 20 miles away.Globalization with its ease of shipping plant material and the stepped up pace of plant introduction of these last decades is going to bite us in the @ss.