It was in the 1950s that Florida landscape gardeners planted the golden rain tree (Koelreuteria elegans), a non-native ornamental from Taiwan with yellow flowers and light, papery seed pods, as the UF/IFAS Assessment of Non-Native Plants and other sources on the species confirm. In what can be termed an immediate attraction to the non-native plant, the soapberry bug, which is an insect that uses its long, sharp beak to penetrate plants in search of food, started using the newly introduced tree for food. As stated in Living on Earth, the length of the beak for the bugs eating from the golden rain tree had become significantly reduced, becoming nearly 30 percent shorter than the beak of bugs eating the native balloon vine within the course of only 50 years.
Get breaking news anytime, anywhere. Download the TOI app now!
