Have you ever had the feeling of being overwhelmed? …suffocatingly so? To the point of feeling your life is being threatened? Perhaps your life being thieved from right underneath you? You are not alone! Many plants feel this way too. Why? Because sometimes their natural competition in life is not so natural… to them at least. I’m talking about plants of the invasive kind!
Invasive plants are plants that can have devastating effects on our environment, our economy, or sometimes, even our own health! “Invasive” is a term which applies to a handful of species which are classified as the most aggressive in the plant kingdom. They have the innate ability to both grow and reproduce at a rapid and exponential rate. Once established, they can wreak havoc in their new-found territories and cause some major changes. Liken them to dominant tyrants of the plant kingdom… NOW!!!
Although most invasive plants are non-native, most plants that are non-native are not invasive. That is, most native areas that are introduced to a foreign species usually dominate the new-comer due to its lack of adaptation. They may find the areas growing season too short, the conditions for its seeds to germinate or spread may not be ideal, or perhaps it lacks a defense against local herbivores. The bottom line is that non-native plants do not have the upper hand… usually.
Whether introduced intentionally or by accident, invasive plants can spread faster than the Rage Virus from the movie ’28 Weeks Later’. Overwhelming the local flora and fauna, the “invasives” dominate vital the components of life one by one. Water, light, nutrients, and eventually space itself all fall to the way of the invasive. One can see it it perhaps not a good idea to plant such a doomsday device.
Some destructive invasives have damaged forests, wetlands, fields, and waterways. This causes erosion and deprives a habitats wildlife from its food… and in some cases, this means humans too! When the total cost of damage is added up considering all types of invasive species (both aquatic and terrestrial), the United States alone is annually estimated to loose 137 billion dollars!!! The cost is due to lost productivity, maintenance, restoration, control, and losses to habitat, livestock, and wild life. This is not to mention that when large areas become carpeted with such plants and god decides to “liven things up a bit”, a common forrest fire can become a Dante’s Inferno due to an almost inexhaustable supply of dense fuel. Perhaps it could be considered the 10th circle of hell… perhaps not… either way, it’s devastatingly expensive.
To get a look at a couple of the most common devastators, take a look at:
-PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE (Lythrum Salicaria)
&
-GARLIC MUSTARD (Allaria Petolata)
What can you do to help prevent the invasion?
1. Once identified, try eliminating such species from your own landscape.
2. Use native plants.
3. Request that your neighbors and municipalities to substitute such plants with more appropriate selections.
4. Request that your local nursery stop carrying invasive plants.
If you’d like, try filling out one of these Nursery Wallet Cards to give them.
5. Technically, breathing slower may disrupt their growth on a picayune level, considering they need your CO2 to survive.
Hopefully this article has informed you of invasive plant’s existence as well as taught you about their threat on all fronts. Know what some common types look like and try to avoid planting them if possible. Fight the good fight, and remember, if you see one face to face, you are smarter than it is… Hopefully, …and if you ask it to fight like a man and it answers you, you are probably drunk… besides, a plant would probably fight like a plant anyhow.
Here is an example of a problem concerning an invasive species DEVASTATING EFFECTS
-SOURCES-
USDA
invasiveplants.net
