Watch CBS News

Deadly Water Mold Threatens California Native Plants

PALO ALTO (KPIX) -- A deadly water mold called Phytophthora (literally, "plant-destroyer") is threatening to wipe out native California plants.

Local plants have no immunity to the fungus-like organism, which may have hitch-hiked into the state from other countries on infected plants or pots.

Non-profit Grassroots Ecology is battling Phytophthora at their nursery, which provides plants to the Mid-Peninsula Open Space District and the Valley Water District for wildland-restoration projects. Their first line of defense: no one gets to enter the nursery until they've cleaned their shoes.

"Alcohol kills the pathogens," Deanna Giuliano, with Grassroots Ecology, said.

In addition to shoe-cleaning, the nursery in the Palo Alto hills, has taken all plants off the ground to avoid splash contamination and pasteurizes the soil. Hoses and tools are kept off the ground, as well.

"I feel like all these new protocols are helping. I've seen a difference in the plants, they look healthier," Giuliano remarked.

Those protocols are driving up prices. The cost of native plants coming from nurseries like Giuliano's has doubled.

"Each of the plants in this shade house will eventually be replanted in the wild by the Open Space Preserve but not one of the plants will leave here without first being tested," Giuliano said.

These efforts aren't cheap or easy but they're essential in conquering Phytophthora, according to Cindy Roessler, with the Mid-Peninsula Opens Space District.

"If we go out and put in new native plants in a preserve and they're diseased, those plants will die but there is also a chance that their roots will spread the disease from those plants into the natural areas around them," Roessler said.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.