Discovering the next crop for producing biofuel is difficult. The crop shouldn’t be a foodstuff, and would ideally be able to grow quickly in less nutrient rich soil, and have a natural resistance to diseases and pests—essentially the same characteristics as an invasive species. Because of the desire to produce energy from biofuels, but the understandable hesitance to plant invasive species, Lauren Quinn, invasive plant ecologist from the University of Illinois, has come up with a lost of 49 native and non native plants that have a low likelihood of becoming invasive (24 of the plants on the list are native). Switchgrass, poplar, and eucalyptus were some of the plants mentioned on Quinn’s list.
Noninvasive plants makes biofuels safer for the environment
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