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We’ve all done it: planted something we love only to learn, sometimes years later, that it is invasive where we live. In many cases, we can be forgiven. If a nursery is selling it, the message conveyed is that all is well. There are fewer excuses now, when home research has never been easier and when awareness of invasive species has never been higher. Despite that, invasive plants are still being sold by many growers, and the desire for some of them sometimes overrides our internal ethicist. This list of 13 invasive plants includes some well known and understandably appealing garden ornamentals. Do not plant them, and do remove them if you are currently harboring plants whose spread alters and harms local ecosystems. An invasive plant does not stay home—it travels: by roots, runner, fruit, and seed.
But what about…?
First, a disclaimer: this list of invasive plants is by no means complete and does not include plants like mugwort, Japanese knotweed, and garlic mustard, since we’re assuming (fingers crossed) that their notoriety precedes them and that they are probably not ornamentally tempting. But, by all means, add plants you feel should be addressed, in the comments.
Butterfly Bush
One of the most tempting invasive plants is butterfly bush. It smells delicious, is pretty, blooms repeatedly, and is irresistible to butterflies. What’s not to love? Consider, then, that invasive Buddleja davidii excels at producing tens of thousands of lightweight, easily dispersed seeds per flowerhead, outcompeting native flowering shrubs whose leaves are essential food for butterfly larvae. While the nectar of butterfly bush attracts adult butterflies, this shrub is not a host plant for their caterpillars, which cannot feed on its foliage. Bear it mind that while newer, so-called less-fertile butterfly bush cultivars exist, they still produce seed, just less of it. Avoid.
Plant native flowering shrubs, instead. Sweet pepperbush (Clethra alnifolia) is a good alternative to butterfly bush, with flowers, scent, and a lot of butterfly action in late summer.
Japanese Honeysuckle
As appealing as its perfumed flowers may be, Lonicera japonica is now a serious botanical thug in wild places where it is not native. The scrambling vine uses shrubs and trees for support, creating dense, shaded thickets that alter the local ecosystem by smothering native seedlings. It is spread via its fruit, vexingly ripe during fall migration. Birds disperse the seed as they move south. Japanese honeysuckle also reproduces vegetatively, via above-ground runners and below-ground rhizomes.
An alternative to Japanese honeysuckle is of course a native honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens (but no scent, sorry). It is very attractive to hummingbirds. For a scented alternative, try star jasmine, (Trachelospermum jasminoides) or bee-friendly yellow jessamine (Carolina jasmine—Gelsemiun sempervirens).
Chinese and Japanese Wisteria
I admire the long panicles of Wisteria sinensis and W. floribunda dripping from pergolas in botanical gardens. And then I drive up the Palisades Parkway in New York and New Jersey and see the same vines cascading from the bent branches of oak, maple, and sycamore. It’s beautiful, but it’s deadly: the strong vines of this wisteria cut through bark and cause gradual death, by girdling. Their smothering habit also alters native forest ecologies. Wisteria spreads vegetatively, growing easily from cuttings and new shoots, and by seeds, which explode from their pods when ripe. Seeds also travel along waterways, to germinate downstream.
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