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A most dangerous present in a box
PETER FROST warns us about several threats to our native woodlands
[Flick/hedera.baltica]

A KIND friend gave me a nice present this Christmas. It was a plant for my garden — a beautifully clipped globe shaped topiary-box tree about a foot high and a foot in diameter.

I thanked her profusely but was a tiny bit worried as I had heard about these imported box plants. They are available at remarkably low prices for such labour intensive products being grown in Asia. Sadly some of them have brought a relatively new insect pest to Britain.

This is the box tree caterpillar that weaves a white web over the plant — and inside that web eats the leaves and often kills the plant. The caterpillar was first seen in Britain in 2008 and was being spotted in English gardens by 2011.

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