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Comment by andrewmcwatters | Hacker News Reader

Oh! That's Stinknet? OK. Well, yeah. It's everywhere in Arizona. There were recently some winds and an uptick in weed growth in just about every neighborhood in the Phoenix metro from what I saw. As csb6 mentioned, it's everywhere. I'm not sure people are really paying that much attention though. Weeds are weeds. You get rid of them. They happen.

Personally, I think it's a quite attractive weed. I don't want it in my yard, and I've gotten rid of it a few times now, but I don't mind it. It's just a part of lawn maintenance, and there is a period of time where I enjoy the natural growth before a manicure.

That being said, it has made some abandoned plots look like meadows now, in my opinion. I welcome the change.

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> Personally, I think it's a quite attractive weed.

That's probably the reason why it got to the US in the first place. Germany now has a massive problem with these "weeds": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens_glandulifera - looks nice in pictures, but it has a hard to describe smell that's very unpleasant. Fortunately it's not blanketing the entire landscape like stinknet in Arizona, but lately where I live it's everywhere in wet, shady clearings in forests, and also outcompeting native species.

I wonder of there's any work being done to "turn off" any of the undesirable traits of some weed like that so it becomes a plant you want to have around that mostly takes care of itself?

The real issue isn't the smell but it out-competing native species

The part about smothering native plants seems more concerning than the lawn maintenance aspect.

> out-competing native plants with startling efficiency

This is the issue however. When an invasive plant starts to take over, it can destroy entire ecosystems.

David Gerrold started an interesting series of SF books - War Against the Chtorr - with a similar premise, but the invasive species were a deliberate attack by aliens. "Terraformation", but the other way around.

Unfortunately the series went off the rails and is unfinished after a few decades: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Against_the_Chtorr

One of my favorite series in the 90s in high school! I had the same mental connection you did. Gerrold also wrote the "Trouble With Tribbles" episode of the original Star Trek, which is similar to the Chtorr books.

From what I understand, Gerrold had a son with severe learning disabilities and was unable to finish it. Which sucks, but I also understand.

...and reading that wiki link, I see 1 or 2 books are in the works, though no updates since 2017 or so. I'll put this fact in my GRRM bin for now.

Yeah, I guess that's a good point. I think the reality of the matter based on the spread that I've seen though is that land owners will have to adapt.

It's just so tremendously prolific. You're not going to simply pull all of it, or glyphosate spray all of it. It's just not happening. You'd need an earth mover.

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