Although cute, Invasive Cuban Treefrogs will invade anything
Today is the last day of National Invasive Species Awareness Week but hopefully with the promotion of this week a new generation of people now have a better understanding of what invasive species are and why it is necessary to eradicate them from their area. I monitor and do a few things to prevent furtherance of some critters in my area.
We have Cuban tree frogs which I routinely humanely euthanize and put in the freezer until trash day. I learned about them in an article in the local paper. Luckily the last two years we had hard freezes, so their numbers are not what they used to be. Last year I only had about 5-10. The prior year I had 15 a week or more.
We also have island apple snails whose eggs I spotted in the drainage culvert. I remove numerous live snails, again to the freezer and I carefully see that the eggs are inundated with water to prevent hatching. These snails likely came from the aquarium trade and the lesson to be learned is don’t dump your aquarium water outside. Many aquarium plants also can prove to be invasive when released into the wild.
Learn to identify the invasive snails
We also have problems with many invasive plants in Florida. A few years back I picked up some mulch from the recycling center in town. I spread this leaf mulch around some shrubbery at the base of my house. A few weeks later, a rather attractive looking leaf began to grow. Since I love nurturing and watching what appears in my garden, I waited until it got a bit taller and then transplanted it to a better location where it looked like it would be a nice specimen tree or shrub. I carefully surrounded it with mulch and watered it faithfully.
Fast-forward a few days. I had just recently joined the Florida Native Plant Society and got my first electronic issue of The Lily Pad, the monthly newsletter of the Pine Lily Chapter to which I belong. I was excited as I sat at the computer perusing the pages that the editor, Claudia Canty had put together. There was the “Species Spotlight” and “Save the Date” sections which I read with interest. Then I turned the page and was stunned to see a photograph of the beautiful plant I had just started cultivating. It was the dreaded Brazilian Peppertree (Schinus terebinthifolius). This beauty of a plant, often referred to as “Florida Holly” is PROHIBITED in Florida. I had visions of being carted off to jail as they shouted “drop the trowel, lady, move away from that rake”. I have since upended this disaster-in-the-making and hung it from a fence until the roots were dried out so there was no chance for it to sprout. Keep in mind that just because a plant is listed as an invasive on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (FLEPPC) list doesn’t mean that it can’t be sold in the state. It is a sad fact that big box stores in Florida still sell Mexican Petunias and Nandina which are Class I invasive plants on the FLEPPC list. It is up to us to know what we are purchasing, so make a list of the plants that are invasive in your area and vow not to participate in furthering their spread. I was given a gift of Nandina when I first moved here but have since removed them and dried them out until they were no longer viable.
Brazilian Peppertree although beautiful is prohibited in Florida photo: Dan Clark, USDI National Park Service, Bugwood.org
The lesson to be learned here is that anyone can become victim to invasive plant furtherance because birds pass seeds or the recycling area doesn’t cook the mulch to kill off the invasive plant seeds, or nursery owners will provide what sells. Get rid of what has the potential to create havoc in our natural areas by doing some research. In Florida replace any class I invasives with some nice native plants in your yard. In other areas, visit the Invasive Plants Atlas for a list, check scientific names at nurseries and rely on your own research in assuring you have the right plant for the right place.
What are you doing to keep invasive species in check?
Loret is an active member of The Florida Native Plant Society. Their 31st Annual Conference is scheduled for May 2011 in her Central Florida area. Over 40 speakers and workshops to help you learn about native plants and their value in a wildlife garden. The FLORIDA EXOTIC PEST PLANT COUNCIL will hold their annual symposium at the same venue May 17-20, 2011 – right before the FNPS Conference. Follow Loret on twitter @PineLilyFNPS
© 2011, Loret T. Setters. All rights reserved. This article is the property of BeautifulWildlifeGarden.com If you are reading this at another site, please report that to us
About Loret T. Setters
Loret, I stopped at a big box store this AM and there were selves of Nandina domestica, berberis, and Vinca minor plants known to be invasive threats in Tennessee for sale. It would be marvelous if these stores made a proactive decision to stop selling them. When I asked the manager why they sold them~She said, “It’s the consumer’s fault, they ask for them!” One of the excuses I’ve heard from local gardeners is that ‘this or that’ invasive plants isn’t invasive in their gardens so, they aren’t removing it. They don’t seem to take into consideration that the seeds can be carried by mud on shoes, birds eating the fruit or even on the wind. gail
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That seems to be a standard reply regarding invasive plants. Ginny Stibolt, the Transplanted Gardener did a post http://bit.ly/g1Ceuz concerning vegetable plants at a big box store and also inquired about a few invasive offerings being sold…clerk promised to tell the manager. She’s not holding her breath on results and neither am I. I’ve learned that I can only offer advice but I can’t force others to accept it. It’s good to know that there are a lot of people out there trying to fight the fight and bloggers such as yourself certainly are helping to open the eyes of some agreeable others.
Loret T. Setters recently posted..The Awakening – Giant Swallowtail
Ah yes the classic NIMBY defence. But it’s not INVASIVE in my garden, I just weed out unwanted seedlings. Big smile, sigh of contentment …
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Some days I gauge the season by what invasive I’m killing this week. Spring is honeysuckle, summer is autumn olive, fall is Japanese stiltgrass…winter could arguably be chickweed, but I’ve totally lost that battle and now just wait for warm weather to fry most of it, since there aren’t enough hours in the day to take it out by hand.
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I was able to celebrate NISAW by pulling up English ivy in a friends yard and replacing it with native plants. I knew glee.
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That is music to my ears. Shall we dance around the new natives?
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I’m a haven a natives surrounded by a forest of Nandinas and other invasives — the greenbelt behind my property and both of my neighbor’s properties are loaded with Nandinas, Ligustrums, and more. I have to do a regular search to keep invasive seedlings off my property and want to cry when I see all the Nandina berries hovering just beyond my fence. Education is the first part, but getting owners to be willing to eradicate the plants from their property can be the biggest challenge, especially because of how difficult the invasives can be to remove. Great post, Loret!
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You are so right, Meredith. Getting people on board with removing the often beautiful plants certainly is the biggest challenge. I remember when I first moved to Florida and saw nandina, I was immediately taken with how beautiful it is and was so appreciative when my friend brought me three mature specimens for my yard. I cried when I upended them, but I knew they had to go. I live very close to a conservation area and although they were never a problem in my personal landscape, my research told me they are a really bad thing for the environment in Florida, so I bit the bullet and now let the bidens alba cover that area and I enjoy a better beauty in the butterflies, lizards and bees that so love the wildflower pollinator magnets
Loret recently posted..The Awakening – Giant Swallowtail
Color me stupid here…but WHY is this plant invasive?? Does it have any uses?
Visit http://www.invasive.org/101/index.cfm for the lowdown on what invasives are and states:
“An invasive species is a non-native species (including seeds, eggs, spores, or other propagules) whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic harm, environmental harm, or harm to human health. The term “invasive”; is used for the most aggressive species. These species grow and reproduce rapidly, causing major disturbance to the areas in which they are present.”
Brazilian Peppertree is invasive in my area because it takes over and replaces native vegetation in natural areas which are necessary for native insects and wildlife to survive becoming the sole plant able to survive….a monoculture which isn’t good for the environment. If it crowds out plants necessary for native insects to survive, birds will suffer because they won’t have anything for their babies to eat. When it crowds out certain plants, native mammals that are incapable of eating the invasive will have nothing to eat and populations will suffer.
It can easily be propogated in the wilds because birds eat the seeds from home backyards but then fly away and when the bird poops, a fertilized seed is deposited. This is why when people say, but I removed all the seedlings in my garden, so it isn’t invasive….that doesn’t cut it. You can’t predict what other aspects of nature will do to help. Florida is particularly vunerable to a lot of invasive plants because we don’t have a long enough hard freeze to eliminate an overabundance of the exotic invasives.
It isn’t invasive in it’s nature habitat, which is South America because there are checks and balances in nature to ensure that one specific species doesn’t grow out of hand to the detriment of others, be it climate factors, other plants native to the area which shade it to prevent it from growing out of hand, insects that feed of seeds, etc.
Some of the uses of this plant include the seeds being sold in peppergrinders…which presents a problem if those seeds happen to escape into someones landscape.
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