Invasive Plants

A Nightmare on Barberry Street

Invasive plants are everywhere, and they’ve trapped our ecosystem in a horror film.

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Invasive Bittersweet Vines: All Bitter, No Sweet

It might be in your nearest park or forest, or even your own backyard, if you’re not a diligent invasive weed puller. If you live anywhere in the watershed, it’s definitely in your state.

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We Love Autumn, but not Autumn Olive

We’re knee deep in colorful fall foliage at this point, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do. Autumn is my favorite season, but it’s also associated with the next species in our invasive species series; autumn olive.

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Loosen the Grip of English Ivy

English ivy is one of the most prevalent invasive species in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. It is a woody vine that climbs trees, fences, and other vertical structures. Left unchecked, it can harm trees by weighing down their limbs, robbing leaves of sunlight, and leaving them more prone to storm damage.

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Red panda

Bamboo: Good for Pandas, Bad for Property Owners

When you think of bamboo you may think of giant pandas or red pandas and that makes perfect sense as the word ‘panda’ is thought to have come from the Nepalese words ‘nigalaya ponya’ translating to ‘bamboo eater’. Although you can find both beloved creatures in zoos or research institutions, like the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, there are no wild North American species that consume the invasive bamboo species.

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A row of green and purple shrubs lining a residential, brick sidewalk

My Big Beef with Barberry

When you learn a new word, you suddenly hear it all the time. Similarly, once you learn what certain invasive species look like, you find one around every corner. Learn a species a month, with our invasive species blog series, starting with Japanese barberry!

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