Utah is now one of at least 28 states urging residents not to plant seeds they received in the mail unexpectedly.
Seed packets arrived over the past week in mailboxes across the country, coming from Malaysia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, but mostly from China.
Direct of Plant Industry at the Utah Department of Agriculture, Robert Hoggard says that several seeds have been identified and they do include a plant considered a noxious weed in the Midwest.
“There’s been some roses, some rose species. A lespedeza species, which is noxious in some of the Midwestern states, specifically Kansas, it’s a Chinese bush clover,” he said. “There’s one that’s an Asian herb that’s in the mint family, and there’s been flower species, some of those that we already have in the United States and wouldn’t be a problem, but some of these really are a concern. We don’t want to get those established here.”
The Utah Commissioner of Ag says that they are cooperating with USDA and Homeland Security, but the seeds look to be part of an e-commerce scam.