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Invasive Plant Species
Going Green
Going Green: Invasive Plant Species
This is a classic example of an invasive plant species. What makes it invasive, among other things; it has the ability to overrun native plants. You need to be aware of this so you can avoid installing invasive plants in your landscape.
Dr. Dudley Raynal says we should be fairly aggressive to minimize the negative impact of European Buckthorn and other invasive plant species.
"It's not an unattractive shrub that may have a role in the landscape but it can become rampant in its abundance. It spreads very naturally through bird dissemination and through the dropping of its abundant fruit," said Dr. Dudley Raynal, SUNY ESF.
We're not going to eliminate them from the flora, eliminate them from the area but we can minimize their negative or adverse impacts." Often they are introduced into relatively productive environments where there's a rich flora that already exists and then competing for resources, limiting light and water and therefore limiting the growth of native species," said Raynal.
You can dig out the invasive species or at least cut it back; in some cases herbicides might work.
"There's no easy fix and there's no single application of cultural or chemical techniques that are going to be successful. It involves vigilance and an effort to reduce, to limit their growth," said Raynal.
Other common invasive species include Asiatic Honeysuckle with bright red berries and this leafy plant, Garlic Mustard - which gives off a garlic smell when you crush the leaves. You can help keep plants like these from gaining a new foothold somewhere else.
“Know what we are planting, be very careful about movement of soil and soil substrates so you're not inadvertently spreading these species that we don't want in our landscape," said Raynal.
