FREEPORT, Ill. (WTVO) — A new weed has been spotted in northern Illinois, according to agriculturists at the University of Illinois Extension.
Researchers said the Asian copperleaf (Acalypha australis) was identified in a field in Stephenson County.
According to the U of I Extension, the weed is not native to the United States. It was first documented in New York in 1990, and then again in an Iowa seed corn field in 2016. Since then, it has been found in ten counties across central and Western Iowa, with Illinois now the third state where the weed has been found…