Invasives-Schminvasives, Part 1:

What are they, and Who Gives a S#*%??

A Quick Series Intro: First, What is an “invasive?”

It’s quite possible that, if you’re even reading this, you don’t currently either a) know what an “invasive” is, or, even if you do, b) you don’t really give a s#*%. So my first job is, at a minimum, to educate you, and to hopefully enlighten you as to why you *should* care.

I’ll note that I live in Connecticut, so the species I’ll focus on will be those considered invasive here, but for most of the ones I’m planning to cover, they’re considered invasive throughout the U.S.

Invasive species in the U.S. are plants, animals, or other living organisms that have been introduced, directly or indirectly by human activity, and which were not natively present before European colonization. Further, as the name implies, these species possess characteristics that cause them to overwhelm native species and to take over an area, usually with fairly alarming speed, causing harm to native ecosystems, often with negative economic impacts as well.

Some non-native species are relatively “well-behaved,” however, we’ve also learned the hard way that under the right conditions, you never know which non-native species can escape our control and become a menace.

I’ll also point out that as the definition above notes, non-native plants, animals, and/or other living organisms can become invasive. I’m into plants, so my focus in this series will be invasive plants, though very often, it’s invasive plants that allow invasive animals to thrive (Spotted lanternfly is a current menace that wreaks real economic and aesthetic damage).

There are literally thousands of examples, so what I plan to do in this series is to introduce you to invasive plants you will likely find with even a short trip out into your yard or neighborhood. With each installment, I’ll focus on one species; I’ll explain (and show) what it looks like, how to identify it, what it does to the ecosystem that makes it suck, and how best to control it.

Invasive vs. Aggressive

I also want to clarify a point that often confuses many people: only non-native species can be considered “invasive.” There is no such thing as a native species that’s invasive, however, there are many native plants that can be quite aggressive, and you probably have a lot of those in your yard as well, trying their best to do their thing, often competing with our sensibilities for more orderly yards and gardens, thus turning them into a real annoyance for many.

Sometimes, even native species can run amok, causing damage and serious problems: poison ivy is one notable and notorious example. When it’s “happy” and in an area where it’s allowed to thrive, its distinctive, hairy vines and glossy leaves can take over native trees and shrubs, mainly by eventually overwhelming the canopy and hogging the sunlight, preventing photosynthesis, weakening and eventually starving the plant.

Usually, however, it’s fairly straightforward to control and it is also kept in check when enough other native species are present to keep it from spreading. The trick, and a theme I’m likely to beat to a bloody pulp with this series, is balance: a variety and balance of other native species will keep the aggressive ones from taking over.

There are many reasons for this, but I’ll lay out just some of the essentials here as they apply to poison ivy: native plants feed native animal species, who both act as propagators and controllers of spread. Deer love poison ivy; birds and rodents love the berries. But if we’re planting things that are even more attractive to the deer than poison ivy (name your favorite ornamental), the deer will gravitate to that instead, creating an opportunity for the poison ivy to thrive. If it overgrows as a result, it produces more berries, which will be consumed by more birds and rodents, who will then act as the propagation agents they were meant to be by simply pooping out the seeds, and voila! Wherever that poop lands, you have a decent shot at more poison ivy, and a constant battle with the deer over your tulips, hostas, dahlias, lilies, roses, hydrangeas, clematis, morning glories. . .

But I digress.

Back to Invasives: Who Cares?

Without getting all science-y, the bottom line is this: invasives destroy biodiversity. Without biodiversity, we humans are, in a word, screwed. Biodiversity is crucial to human survival for many reasons, among them disease prevention and management, food security, and access to clean water. Monocultures (the opposite of biodiversity) kill, whether purposely cultivated (think: millions of acres of single-species crops or lawns, both of which demand extremes of water, pesticide, and fertilizer use, the latter of which cause clearly documented downstream issues of oxygen depletion, algae bloom, and die-off of marine life) or accidentally unleashed.

Non-native invasives create monocultures by snuffing out native plant life, chipping away at biodiversity in a number of ways (some of which I’ll get into as I highlight different invasives in this series), for native plants and for the organisms that depend on them.  

The World Economic Forum published this excellent (and very readable) article in honor of the International Day for Biological Diversity in 2020.

“Can’t we just let nature take its course and fend for itself?”

Sure, if we want to allow the decline and eventual extinction of native species and the biodiversity they provide. Native plants and animals, unfortunately, are not equipped to evolve quickly enough to counter the overwhelming effects of invasives.

Going Forward

First on my “favorite” invasives hit parade will be Oriental bittersweet, Celastrus orbiculatus, a creeping, climbing, choking menace, and a plant which, whenever I see it popping up in my yard, always causes an involuntary stream of foul language to burst out of my mouth. I’ll cover it in my next blog post!

Meanwhile, one thing you can do that will help: when you’re at your garden center and tempted to buy a perennial to add to your garden because it looks nice, ask the staff if it’s native to your area. Most of the time they won’t have a single clue, but that’s the easiest way to start! If they don’t know, a quick online search should get you there.

My favorite source to identify whether a plant is native to your area is to look it up on the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center’s website, where you can enter either the common name on the plant’s tag, or the (far more accurate) two-part latin name, if it’s there. If you’re using the common name, check the photos to be sure they look like the plant you’re considering. Common names are often used for very different plants, which is the challenge with using common names! If you can’t find your target plant on the LBJ Wildflower Center site, it’s not native anywhere in the U.S, and if you can possibly help yourself, don’t buy it.

The more native plants you add to your gardens, the more biodiversity you foster!

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Invasives-Schminvasives, Part 2

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