outdoors

For hay fever sufferers who move to Panama from North America, there is the relief of no godenrod or ragweed to cause watery eyes and clogged sinuses. But of course, particularly in the rainy season, we do have mold spores. And then there's this stuff, the tall flowering grass, the Vietnamese elephant grass that the Canal Zone authorities brought to Panama in the 1950s because they thought it would do a good job shoring up the banks of Culebra Cut. The stuff, which Panamanians dubbed "paja canalera," turned out to be a hardy invasive weed and thus a major agricultural pest. Moreover, when elephant grass pollen is in the air, many people with hay fever can feel it before they see it.

























Also in this section:
Venezuelan mangrove project
Elephant grass
Water project may save Guatemala's national bird

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