Beware: Invasive Plants to Avoid

Spring rains have subsided and summer is thriving. That means more time mowing and maintaining properties. But the Nature Conservancy is urging people to check their yard and gardens for plants that can wreak extreme havoc on the natural environment.

Known as invasive species, these plants are typically transplants from distant places.

Although they may look pretty, their beauty is deceptive. These alien invaders establish themselves in new areas and proliferate – to the detriment of other species. Often, they hoard light, water and nutrients, sometimes altering ecosystems, hydrological processes or soil chemistry. The result: invasive plants take over native vegetation; they displace animals that relied on the native species for shelter and sustenance.

The following is a list of several invasive plants, specific to New York State, that should not be purchased and planted:

Purple Loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria): The perennial wildflower is seriously invasive in wetland habitats. It is outlawed in a number of states throughout the United States but is sold by many commercial nurseries in New York.

Black Locust Tree (Robinia pseudoacacia): This plant threatens rare inland pitch pine – scrub oak barrens and the endangered blue butterfly. It also threatens grassland habitats and a number of rare grassland birds. Once established, it paves the way for a variety of other invasive plants.

Bush Honeysuckle Shrub (Lonicera morrowil and L. tartarical): This honeysuckle shrub spreads rapidly from open habitats to wooded areas.

Japanese Honeysuckly Vine (Lonicera japonica): This plant is lovely to look at but is actually a deadly invasive plant.

Garlic Mustard (Aliarai petiolata): This wildflower does considerable damage to forested lands.

Japanese barberry and all cultivars (berberis thunbergii): These popular and widely available plants are extremely invasive.

According to the Nature Conservancy, invasive species are now a threat to the survival of plants and animals that is exceeded only by the threat of habitat loss. They are contributing to the 46 percent of species (57 percent of plants and 39 percent of animals) listed as imperiled or endangered in the United States.

To learn more about the threat of invasive plants to the natural environment, visit www.nature.org and the Nature Conservancy’s Invasive Plant Council at www.ipcnys.org.