Tempted by Beauty

For our August 2018 issue, we celebrated “Our Natural World,” and when story subject Frenchy  Crochet plucked a gorgeous water hyacinth from Bayou Black, we couldn’t resist blowing it up and slapping it on our cover. Well, evidenced by jewel-toned dart frogs and oh-so-cuddly black bears, nature loves to adorn its more menacing members in seductive beauty. The water hyacinth—found in bayous, lakes, and drainage ditches around the state—is actually a South American species and didn’t form (floating) roots in Louisiana until the early twentieth century. Considered an invasive species, and an aggressive one at that, the royally-hued beauty forms a dense floating carpet on the surfaces of water, blocking sunlight and oxygen from its neighboring aquatic plants, microorganisms, and wildlife while also contributing to increased sedimentation rates in waterways.

In our January 2019 issue, writer Chris Staudinger investigates the interactions and accompanying challenges of our state’s many invasive species, particularly the devastating scale insect and its prey, the roseau cane, which isn’t necessarily our friend either.

Read the full story here: An insect the size of a pepper flake could accelerate coastal erosion.