It looked like such a cute plant sitting there on forest floor near the back corner of our property here in Cape May County, New Jersey. It had pretty purple flowers and an intriguing stem that sprouted out a couple leaves every few inches. The perennial plant sat there all by itself, yearning to be saved. Always a sucker for flora and fauna, we transplanted it to a safe, sunny spot in our garden and forgot about it.
The next growing season it spread some via an underground root system. Again, the purple flowers were beautiful. By the next year, it was springing up nearly ten feet from where I planted the first one. Still, I figured it had just about used up the open area and it would not keep spreading.
Then one morning in July I opened up the morning newspaper and there was a story about an invasive plant that had been imported from Asia. The accompanying picture left me speechless – it was my little purple-flower plant. The more I read the story, the more I realized I had to dig this perennial plant right up and destroy it.
Now, two years later, I think I finally have seen the last of this bugger. It seems everytime I thought it was all dug up, another shoot would spring up elsewhere.
It is estimated that there are 50,000 alien species in the United States, and they do $138 billion damage to the US economy. The biggest problem is that many of these foreigners have no natural pests or diseases here to keep them in check. So they spread like wildfire, choking out native species. Since one plant species in an area supports about 10 animal species, a monoculture of one plant can substantially reduce animal habitat and diversity.
Some of the invasive plant species in New Jersey – many planted by well-meaning landscapers – are the Norway maple, Japanese barberry, Asian bittersweet, English ivy, mimosa, wisteria, Japanese honeysuckle, bamboo, and day lily. Geez, we have four of those right in our yard. Who knew? Even the multiflora rose (planted along highways) and crown vetch (to stabilize hillsides) are foreigners.
In Avalon, an upscale shore community here, they planted Japanese black pines back in the 1960′s to help stabilized the shifting sands of the dunes. Little did they realize how quickly they would grow, pushing out native species. And with pine needles eventually coating the ground underneath them, that area became barren.
Avalon is now cutting out the dead black pines and pruning all the lower branches of the live ones. They will be replaced by native species – Eastern red cedar, black cherry, wax myrtle, and Northern bayberry – which all can perform the same role of stabilizing the sand. It’s a win-win.
With spring just two months away, the ground will soon begin revealing a new crop of summer plants at our home. I better keep my shovel ready just in case any of those Asian purple-flower plants show up.
- Mountain Man and City Girl