India, Oct. 20 -- Giant mimosa arrived in Thailand with a simple job. According to a 2023 review in the journal Plants, the plant was brought in as a cover and green manure crop in 1947. Now, the same review lists it as one of the 100 worst invasive species in the world. The story is about how a farming fix can become a long-term headache for rivers, fields, and wildlife.

The review says giant mimosa is native to tropical America. It forms dense, thorny patches, which can grow up to 6 meters high. Introduced in 1947, it spread all over Thailand along riverbanks and floodplains. The review also notes the plant has been in the Mekong River Basin since the 1970s, and has spread over 30% of the floodplain areas of the Mekong. The genetic wor...