If I look straight out my windshield at the last red light on my way home, I spy a tall stately perennial with a purple flower. I saw the same plant on my last summer visit to New York State. There you could look out any window and see this beautiful plant for mile after uninterrupted mile.

Of course I'm talking about purple loosestrife. This beautiful plant can be a thug and bane of the natural landscape. In fact, it has turned islands in the nearby Susquehanna River into near jungles. It is bad enough that the researchers are trying to introduce natural predators (loosestrife eating insects) to slow or reverse this plant's advance into our native landscape.

The plant, I believe, has disappeared from the nursery trade in the last five or 10 years. It has been long enough that I forget the cultivar name. It may have been Robert's something. It was represented as sterile.

I had it in my garden until five or six years ago. I can verify that it was only near sterile and that occasionally seedlings escaped. These seedlings appeared to be more vigorous than the mother plant.

I never viewed it as a problem, but then I had it planted high and dry. Those conditions are the opposite of where it is a problem. It loves to take over wet areas.

In my garden it was so pretty that everyone wanted to buy one, so I finally destroyed it to avoid the hassle of telling people that it was no longer available. I am not positive that its sale is banned in Pennsylvania, but I am sure that the plant police from the Department of Agriculture are on the lookout for it in nurseries.

Usually I write these articles in one frantic burst as I rush to meet deadline. However, this week I got started three or four days early. Ironically, a few hours after writing the first several paragraphs I found myself face to face with a rather large and nasty looking patch of loosestrife near where the headwaters of the west branch of the Octoraro crosses the remains of the low grade railroad.

It was the first time I had seen a wild stand of loosestrife in the area away from the Susquehanna. To me that was a sobering sight. My fear is that in a short time purple loosestrife will filter down that scenic valley at the expense of the native plants.

I realize that the above will spark the debate about what to plant. The advocates of natives will say only natives. Unfortunately, that is but a small part of the palette that is available for our gardens.

The other response is to be careful with the plants that find their way into our gardens. Here the nursery operator and the gardener both have responsibilities. Stay tuned for some more friends or thugs next week. You will be surprised at some of the suspects.