The plants of Texas are dying.

In Texas, the number of invasive plants is slowly rising. These species can spread like wildfire and overpopulate, resulting in our native plants to rapidly decrease in numbers, which hurts the native ecosystem. Our community doesn’t even realize that the pretty flowers all around may actually be hurting the environment. A good example of one of the non-native plants that have invaded Texas is the Lantana Camara. A lot of places, including my front yard, are filled with these beautiful blush pink and yellow like sunshine flowers. What a pretty scene, when it rains through the night and you go outside in the morning to see the sunrise making the water on the leaves shimmer like diamonds. But a secret hides behind the pretty soft petals of the flower. It’s not supposed to be here. Ever since it came to our state, the native Texas Lantana Urticoides, with its fiery red and oranges, has been getting less and less.

Invasive species of plants can seriously damage the wildlife in Texas. Let’s say that there’s a wild rabbit that eats a certain type of plant that is native to Texas. If an invasive species comes and the number of the plants the rabbit eats drops, the population of the rabbit will also decrease, therefore endangering the species or even causing extinction. It’s also sad to see the beautiful lush plants of Texas die off at the hands, or well, roots of the non-native ones.

While some people might think that invasive plants are helpful because they can provide food for the animals or because they look pretty, I disagree strongly. I believe nothing good can come from these invasive plants, or animals for that matter, because they decrease biodiversity, which just means the variety of life in an ecosystem. They can harm that biodiversity by overpopulating until there’s not very many other plants.

I think that we need to save our native species, and you can help. One way you can help is by planting one of our native flowers in your yard; you can support Texas’ biodiversity and help keep some of them from going endangered or extinct. You, with your actions, can help save Texas.