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February 14, 2024
After over a year of hiatus, Miami Waterkeeper welcomed back our volunteers to restore local parks and natural habitats! Through our partnership with the City of Miami Parks and Recreation, we were able to host 11 volunteers at Virginia Key Park. Our volunteers focused their efforts on the removal of invasive plants, most notably, Snake Plant (Sansevieria sp.) from dune habitat. Volunteers worked tirelessly from 9:30 am to 11:30 am to remove Snake Plant from a 523 sq ft area, bigger than your average 2 car garage!
Our volunteers pulling out snake plants by the "carrot-like" rhizome
All cleaned up thanks to our amazing volunteers!!
Snake Plant is a very popular house plant due to its hardiness and its little maintenance requirement. Unfortunately, these plants have made their way into our natural areas and their hardy nature holds true outside as well! Snake plant originates from Africa, where this plant was used for making bowstrings, cordage, ropes, mats, and nets. This plant was introduced in Florida around the 1800s as an ornamental and fiber crop. It was later deemed a nuisance in 1951 because the rhizomes (a horizontally growing, underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots) eventually produce a dense groundcover that excludes native vegetation and drives down biodiversity. When used as a house plant, snake plant is well-behaved. The problem comes when plants are tossed as trash outdoors.
A job well done by all!
If you're interested in our volunteer events, click HERE to see any upcoming events.