Burning bush deemed invasive in PA

Burning bush, a landscape shrub popular for its fire-engine-red fall foliage, has been deemed invasive by the state Department of Agriculture and will be phased out of sale in Pennsylvania.

The Ag Department’s Controlled Plant and Noxious Weed Committee voted to add burning bush as well as four species of privets to the state’s Controlled Plant and Noxious Weeds list as of Jan. 10, meaning those plants will be banned for sale in Pennsylvania garden centers and nurseries.

As with two other landscape plants that recently landed on the noxious-weeds list (Japanese barberry and flowering pear trees), the bans on burning bush and privets will be phased in.

The newest bans continue a state crackdown on invasive plants that began in late 2021 and early 2022 when Japanese barberries, flowering (callery) pears, ravenna grass, Japanese stiltgrass, garlic mustard, and common and glossy buckthorns were added to the noxious-weed list.

Japanese barberries will be banned from sale as of Oct. 8, 2023, and flowering pears will be banned as of Feb. 10, 2024. Glossy buckthorn’s grace period ends in February 2023. (The others aren’t widely available in garden centers or aren’t sold at all.)

This news was originally posted by PennLive, click here for the full report.