Congratulations to Virginia on its new laws regulating invasive ornamental plants! A list of 39 species, if sold at a retail nursery, will have to be labeled to inform consumers that they are potentially invasive. Some provisions of the law do not take effect until January, 2027. https://lis.virginia.gov/bill-details/20251/HB1941
Vinca minor spreads from an old cemetery into surrounding woodlands in Maryland
Maryland updated its law listing ornamental invasive plants in June 2024 making it easier to add new species to the list, although as of April, 2025, there don’t appear to have been any new additions. Maryland has a two-tiered list with some plants banned from sale, and some requiring labeling at retail nurseries. https://extension.umd.edu/resource/invasive-plants-avoid-buying-your-yard-and-garden-maryland/
Yellow groove bamboo (Phyllostachys aureosulcata) is now featured on some restaurant menus! The New York Times T Magazine (“What’s Behind the Frenzy Over Bamboo in Cooking?” 10/10/24) described how some restaurants are using foraged pickled and salt-cured bamboo on menus. Tama Matsuoka Wong, a New Jersey based forager who specializes in harvesting invasive edible plants, was featured in the article. Her company is meadows and more.
Started in 2016, the Invasive Species Collaborative at Virginia Tech has been growing quickly to add new faculty positions and promote new collaborations to understand invasive species impacts on society. Director Dr. Jacob Barney is now serving a two-year term on the Federal Invasive Species Advisory Council. On the plant side of invasive species, the Collaborative has faculty in Sociology, Plant and Environmental Sciences, Entomology, Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation, Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Agricultural Leadership and Community Education, and Industrial and Systems Engineering. Sign up for their newsletter to learn about their great work!
Posted inEducation, Research|Comments Off on Invasive Species Collaborative at Virginia Tech
Dense growth of Sporobolus airoides along a path in New Mexico
I’ve listened to and participated in many discussions about how to outcompete invasive plants using native plant species. Competition could be used to prevent new invasions or to aid in restoration after removing invasive plants. A recent article in Restoration Ecology reports results of a sowing study done in Hungary looking at native grassland species competing against three different invasive plant species. They note that the timing of seed germination of the native and invasive species was similar and that as you might expect, high seeding rates of the native species increased their early competitive ability. A perennial grass species was the most competitive against the three (non-grass) invasive plant species.
Csákvári, E., Sáradi, N., Berki, B., Csecserits, A., Csonka, A.C., Reis, B.P., Török, K., Valkó, O., Vörös, M. and Halassy, M. (2023), Native species can reduce the establishment of invasive alien species if sown in high density and using competitive species. Restor Ecol, 31: e13901. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13901
Controlling flowering rush in Mentor Marsh, Mentor, OH https://www.flickr.com/photos/buffalousace/51299006793
Introduced as an ornamental plant, and perhaps also accidentally introduced through ballast, flowering rush, Butomus umbellatus, has spread into lakes, ponds, marshes, and irrigation ditches across southern Canada and the northern United States. Several characteristics make it a great invader. It comes in two forms, a flowering diploid and a seldom-flowering triploid. Although diploid populations produce numerous seeds, both types tend to spread mainly through vegetative reproduction. They both produce rhizome buds that easily break off and float to new sites. Diploids also produce vegetative bulbils in the inflorescences. They can grow submerged, although their biomass declines in deeper water. The plant is hardy to zone 3, and in its native Europe grows from Spain to Finland.
Illustration by Jacob Sturm, 1796
When it isn’t flowering, the leaves tend to blend in among other aquatic vegetation like cattails, sweet flag, burr-reed, and iris. The sword-like leaves are weakly triangular in cross section.
My dad was out kayaking on a slough near Newport, OR with some botanists and learned
Japanese eelgrass rests on the muddy edge of a slough near Newport, OR.
about Japanese (or dwarf) eelgrass, Zostera japonica. It often occurs in the same locations as the native common eelgrass, Z. maritima, but higher in the intertidal if both species are present. It has narrower and shorter leaf blades than common eelgrass.
Japanese eelgrass probably arrived in the 1930s in shipments of Pacific oysters. It reproduces prolifically by seed and spreads by rhizomes. It has established from Humboldt Bay in CA north to the Strait of Georgia in Canada.
You can read an excellent summary about this eelgrass written by Levy Hay at University of Washington in 2011.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Japanese eelgrass in the Pacific Northwest
In another couple months the tumbleweeds will be rolling along in the western United States. Wells and Ellstrand (2016) at the University of California – Riverside documented a new hybrid species of tumbleweed, Salsola ryanii, rapidly expanding its range. Salsola ryanii is an allopolyploid species with 2 complete sets of genes from its parent species, S. tragus and S. australis.
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Hybrid Tumbleweeds
Spring is here and along with it some of the more edible invasive plants. Anyone for a dish of knotweed kimchi or garlic mustard pesto pasta? Pittsburgh has gone to great lengths developing edible uses for Japanese knotweed, Fallopia japonica. One business sells it by the pound to enterprising brewers and bakers. Watch a video from the Wall Street Journal on Pittsburgh’s knotweed gourmets here, http://on.wsj.com/1YRN9g2.
The ultimate online resource for eating invasive plants (and animals) is probably Eat the Invaders. Here you can find all sorts of information and recipes on edible invaders. Bon appetit!
Posted inUncategorized|Comments Off on Eating invasives
Sylvan Kaufman and Wallace Kaufman are the authors of Invasive Plants: Guide to Identification and the Impacts and Control of Common North American Species published by Stackpole Books. Here we update you on the latest research, control techniques, news and issues surrounding invasive plants.
