Hundreds of people receive mysterious, unsolicited seed shipments from China
Hundreds of people around the country have received mysterious, unsolicited packets of seeds from China in recent weeks, the Wall Street Journal reports. The seed varieties vary and many have yet to be identified, though at least one packet sent to Louisiana appears to contain water lily seeds. Local departments of agriculture and USDA are investigating, and officials have advised packet recipients not to plant them, as some may contain invasive species. It might be a very odd attempt at bioterrorism, or it might simply be an online review-rigging scam. Either way, the odd packages have spawned intense interest from home gardeners and biosecurity researchers alike.
