Invasive Plant Management

What is an invasive species?

 

“Invasive” describes a plant, animal or microbe that’s nonnative (introduced from another part of the world) and undergoes extreme proliferation in its new location, causing harm to the local ecosystem. The population boom of an invasive species is partly because the parasites, predators, diseases and other natural checks on its population growth in its original home range are absent in its new home. Invasive species typically harm ecosystems by killing off or crowding out native species, changing key environmental factors such as resource availability and soil conditions, and disrupting mutually beneficial relationships between native species.

h plant species are invasive in Rose Valley?

 

The most prolific and damaging invasive plants in Rose Valley include the following (click on the name for photos and detailed information):

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• Amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii)

• Border privet (Ligustrum oblongifolium)

• Burningbush (Euonymus alatus)

• English ivy (Hedera helix) See tips on how to remove English ivy here.

• Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

• Goutweed (Aegopodium podagraria)

• Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii)

• Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica)

• Japanese knotweed (Fallopia japonica; formerly Polygonum cuspidatum)

• Japanese stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum)

• Lesser celandine (Ficaria verna; formerly Ranunculus ficaria)

• Mile-a-minute (Persicaria perfoliata; formerly Polygonum perfoliatum)

• Multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora)

• Norway maple (Acer platanoides)

• Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus)

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What can we do to reduce or eradicate invasive plant species?

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Follow the motto “REMOVE AND REPLACE.” First, remove or kill the invasive plants using the best management practices for the particular species (click on the names above for more detailed information). Then replant the space with native species appropriate to the site conditions. Planting gives the native plants a head start.

Without that intervention, invasive plants are likely to beat the natives in the race to recolonize the space.

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WARNING: Herbicides are harmful to native plant and animal life, water quality and human health unless used sparingly and in strict accordance with manufacturers’ instructions. Where herbiciding is suggested in the table below, spot-application or “painting”—rather than spraying—should be used whenever possible, herbicides should be applied only on days with little or no wind, and application near streams and wetlands should be avoided.