Make informed choices at the nursery

Instead of planting non-native rhododendrons, choose mountain laurel (Kalmia latifolia). Each of Periwinkle Pachysandra many delightful varieties has evergreen foliage and INVASIVE in June.

Lowbush blueberry Get rid of those privet hedges. Consider planting inkberry holly (Ilex glabra). It is evergreen, grows Groundcovers: know your friends in sandy soil and takes pruning well. If you would WHY THEY MUST GO and foes like your to produce berries for birds, then PLANTS you will need to Periwinkle (Vinca minor) both Still found in nurseries, this groundcover remains a female and popular choice. Unfortunately, it is not as innocent male as it looks. The aggressive plant can easily escape (one male for from your yard to a nearby forest and quickly take five female). over the forest floor. Remove those invasive burning bushes! Instead use Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis) huckleberries (Gaylussacia baccata). This small or Another common groundcover—and another medium-sized native produces stunning hazard to the natural world. Has been found autumn color. growing in a few reservations on its own. Even In addition, you though it is less aggressive in our climate than (and local periwinkle, this is still an alien plant that does not birds) will add, but only subtracts from the environment. munch on the Instead of these aliens, consider the berries. † Sheep’s-Bit ¢ following lovely native plants for your groundcover: Aka Jasione montana looks pretty! However, this Instead of barberries, try winterberry holly (Ilex alien annual is rapidly invading southeastern Lowbush blueberries (Vaccinium angustifolium) verticillata). Its piercing red berries will brighten Massachusetts—including the unique pine barrens This easy going plant will thrive in a sunny, open your life during those cold and dark days, from in and around Myles Standish State Forest. location with poor, sandy, or rocky soil. Blueberries November right through February. They also can Together we can prevent sheep’s-bit and others like can be found in nurseries, including a few provide food for birds. Keep in mind, for berries it from ruining the globally rare pine barrens. Learn horticultural varieties. You will have a nice, natural you will have to more about identifying, controlling, and replacing groundcover and besides enjoy an annual crop of have both sexes invasive plants in your own yard. Let’s keep our juicy blueberries! (one male pine barrens intact! Wintergreen ( procumbens) shrub for about If you prefer an evergreen groundcover, choose every five Friends of Myles Standish wintergreeen. In addition to glossy foliage all year females). round, your garden will be adorned by bright red State Forest all the way through the winter. They will stand Looking for native that work well in www.friendsmssf.com out against snow, sometimes even lasting into the home gardens? Try flowering dogwood (Cornus next spring! florida) and American holly (Ilex opaca). Photos courtesy of Salicicola.com What is an invasive plant? Common Invasive Plants in Southeastern Massachusetts While modest and harmless in their native Why should I be concerned? environment, some plants may become Non-native plant invasions have already Glossy Buckthorn unpredictable and aggressive when introduced to contributed to the complete disappearance of many a faraway country, finding themselves in a new native plants in eastern Massachusetts. One aggressive Birds feed on shiny black berries of this highly invasive setting away from their natural competitors and clone of periwinkle can take the place of wintergreen, consumers. Escaping from gardens and front shrub and thus disperse its wild sarsaparilla, dewberry, Indian pipe, and scores of . Especially harmful in lawns, they first spread to open spaces along other natives! Each loss of a native plant can trigger roads, abandoned fields, and other altered wetlands, it has found its way to multiple losses of insects, birds, and other dependent MSSF pond shores. habitats. While some remain there, those most organisms. If we remain indifferent about invasive plants vigorous advance even farther—right into natural advancing on us, the pine barrens we know may Mustard habitats. Those alien plants that find their way eventually be lost to groves of Norway spruce, thickets of into forests, rivers, and ponds where they displace Japanese knotweed, ponds circled by reeds, glossy One of the most notorious native plants are considered invasive. buckthorn, and rusty willow! intruders in the New World, garlic mustard produces How can I help? chemicals that hamper growth Constant vigilance. Start in your own yard. Is there of other plants. a Japanese honeysuckle climbing on the fence? Or is there a row of barberry bushes displaying bright red fruit in front of your house? The only way to effectively deal Japanese Knotweed with an invasive plant infestation is to remove invasive A well-known urban invader, plants right away. If YOU fail to act on time, the this aggressive plant makes it problem plants may spread, ruining the natural landscape from the roadside to as they go. conservation land, once it finds a foothold in a disturbed habitat.

Oriental Bittersweet The dangerous vine acts like a boa constrictor winding its way up trunks , suffocating trees. It has been recently spotted in MSSF. Common barberry (Berberis vulgaris) and Japanese barberry (Berberis thunbergii) are invasive shrubs. Both are now banned from all sales and propagation, though they can still often be found in yards. Remove! Rusty Willow Avoid using alien plants in your garden! The alien willow has become Beware. Many non-native plants are rather aggressive, the most common willow in SE even though they are not yet labeled “invasive”. Research Massachusetts, displacing each plant before you buy it. Ask your local nursery what Spotted knapweed (Centaurea maculosa) produces leafy native plants in wetlands and rosettes during the first year. The next year: little bluestem native plants they can offer. For more information visit around ponds. Find out more and golden asters are forced aside by the invasive newcomer, Mass Wildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species about it at salicicola.com/ whose roots emit chemicals that kill other plants. Program (Google “mass wildlife invasive plants”). announcements/atrocinerea/.