December is over and the new year is here. It’s a time for weddings, anniversaries, childbirths and birthdays — a season of giving and receiving. And what better way to mark these occasions than with bouquets of colourful flowers — tuberoses, roses and gladiolas?

But choosing a visually appealing, large floral bouquet, to add more meaning to a momentous event, may backfire — as the excessively used stems, with tiny white, daisy-like flowers at the top, could unintentionally prove harmful.

Take a closer look at the flower bunches sold at your neighbourhood florist… the flowers are sparse and scattered, and most of the volume is created by weeds taped together with floral stems. That weed is called parthenium or parthenium hysterophorus and it is locally known as gajar booti. This weed is poisonous and regular contact with it is known to harm not only humans, but also animals and the environment.

So, the next time you sneeze or cough, your skin itches or you face difficulty in breathing, don’t be quick to blame the smoggy, dry weather. The culprit could be this weed in the bouquet, lovingly brought to you by someone dear.

Parthenium, or gajar booti, is a poisonous weed, which is widely used by florists and mostly ignored by farmers, with the majority unaware that regular contact with it can result in lifelong health issues in humans and animals, and also cause lasting damage to the environment…

DO YOU KNOW…

The Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI) is an international, inter-governmental, not-for-profit organisation that applies scientific expertise to solve problems in agriculture and environment. According to their research, close contact with parthenium may cause dermatitis and respiratory problems, such as hay fever, bronchitis or asthma.

The same CABI findings disclosed that parthenium’s deep roots disrupt native vegetation, establishing a territory that replaces indigenous grasses and weeds, which are crucial for grazing animals. Livestock and cattle typically avoid parthenium, and if they accidentally consume it, the consequences can be severe. They may suffer from dermatitis, behavioural changes, and lesions in their gastrointestinal tract, liver, and kidneys — conditions that can lead to death.

Parthenium has spread across Pakistan, similar to other countries of South Asia, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa, primarily through imported food grains or vehicular transportation. This resilient weed thrives along roadsides, railway tracks and riverbanks, from where it invades agricultural farms, thus damaging crops.

In urban areas, it proliferates around buildings and on vacant plots in residential neighbourhoods. However, awareness about the harmful effects of this invasive plant — locally known as ‘gajar booti’ — is alarmingly scarce in our country.

FROM FLORISTS TO FARMLANDS

At a flower shop in Lahore’s Defence area, Mohammad Ashiq has already assembled a large bunch of parthenium. He plans to embellish it with a few flowers. Once complete, the bouquet will be ready to sell to customers for a few thousand rupees.

When informed that the weed he handles daily could harm his health, 45-year-old Ashiq, who hails from Kasur, simply shrugs his shoulders. “Baji, I’ve been handling it for the past 30 years,” he tells Eos. He spreads his hardened hands and adds, “See, my hands are perfectly fine.”

He dismisses any warnings about gajar booti with a laugh. “We people from the rural lands feel nothing. These are issues for urbanites such as yourself,” he adds and continues to trim the weed without a care.

Ashiq is a lucky man. He is seemingly immune to allergies. However, he was aware of gajar booti’s dangerous effects on animals, saying that the livestock don’t consume the weed. But he was clueless about its effect on humans.

Medical experts confirm that the harm caused by parthenium can lead to lifelong issues, with no affordable or effective treatments available. The only viable solution is to avoid exposure to the plant or leave the affected area entirely.

Using gajar booti to stuff floral bouquets is a cost-effective method to add volume to the arrangement. Ashiq’s daily requirement of about 10 three-foot-wide bundles cost him about Rs500. By using it to bulk up the bunch, he significantly increases his profit margins, earning extra thousands.

Away from the fancifulness of flower shops, Dr Abdur Rehman, deputy director at CABI, explains that awareness among farmers about the detrimental effects of parthenium is limited to instances when it directly impacts their own farmlands, thereby reducing their crop yield.

“They show little concern for its unchecked growth on vacant and abandoned plots, ignoring the fact that its seeds can easily spread to their fields and jeopardise their crops,” he tells Eos.

Dr Rehman adds that even among experts, awareness about parthenium is low. “Some of them mistake it for bhang [leaves of the hemp plant], and dismiss any effort to eradicate it as unnecessary,” he says.

NIPPING THE PROBLEM IN THE BUD

A welcome step toward addressing the issue was seen earlier in December in Islamabad. On the prime minister’s (PM) directive to tackle pollen allergies in the federal capital, the PM’s national coordinator on health, Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Bharat, issued a statement, restricting the sale of gajar booti in flower shops across the federal capital.

Other countries where this plant grew profusely have taken effective steps to eradicate it. Australia, South and East Africa, Sri Lanka and India have banned its growth.

“In Pakistan, substantial yield losses in wheat and maize have been reported due to the presence of parthenium,” Dr Rehman points out. “Its current spread seems to be facilitated by the road network and water canal systems for irrigation and flooding events,” he continues.

Dr Rehman also underscores the urgent need to raise awareness among people about the damaging effects of parthenium. “The plant must be uprooted completely. Otherwise, it will regrow in moist environments and continue its invasive spread,” he concludes.

Mohammad Irfan Nawaz, a horticulturist based in Lahore, travels across Pakistan on agriculture-related assignments, where he often sees gajar booti growing unchecked. “Finding a single effective solution for eradicating this weed is impossible,” Nawaz tells Eos. “A collective and multi-pronged approach is perhaps the only viable solution,” he adds.

According to Nawaz, efforts to tackle this weed should focus on manual uprooting, combined with biological control methods. “Ideally, the growth should be checked at the vegetative stage,” he says. Otherwise, the use of stem-boring weevils should be considered, which is the safest and most effective approach, he points out.

Nawaz explains that the stem-boring weevil is a natural enemy of parthenium or gajar booti. “It lays its eggs on the flowers and the emerging larvae feed on stems and hollow it out,” he continues.

Regardless, Nawaz thinks that all possible efforts should be made to raise public awareness about the harmful effects of this weed.

So, the next time you’re handed a floral bouquet with gajar booti tucked in, smile, be gracious, and say, thanks, but no thanks.

The writer is a journalist based in Lahore

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 5th, 2025