Alien Invaders: Envisioning Exotic Species in Florida

Abstract

The Tampa Tribune recently expressed its "shame and outrage" that State politicians were ignoring what the paper calls "perhaps the greatest threat to the State's natural heritage": the invasion of exotic species. These nefarious species were, according to the paper, quite literally "gobbling up Florida's landscape." Here, the terms used to portray this invasion are significant. The Australian melaleuca tree (Melalueca quinquenervia), for example, originally was imported as a means to reclaim land from the soggy marshes of south Florida.