My state’s general assembly just passed a bill banning the sale of various invasive species. By a landslide 124-19 🤩 See? You can get conservation work done, even in purple and red states. Yay!
No more sale of all varieties of Japanese honeysuckle, sericea lespedeza, perilla mint, burning bush and Callery pear
#Missouri #InvasiveSpecies #conservation #JapaneseHoneysuckle #BushHoneysuckle #SericeaLespedeza #PerillaMint #burningbush #callerypear #BradfordPear
Hello. I hate invasive species. You should too. Last fall folks seemed to dig my rants about #BushHoneysuckle. So today I’ll rail against another species that doesn’t belong here and really pisses me off because it is destroying the #Midwest ecosystem: Callery or “Bradford” pear.
Yesterday @Jillianmarisa and I took baby Juniper on her first nature walk. Down a path at one of #Missouri’s amazing wildlife conservation areas. Sadly I was deeply distracted and disheartened at all of the invasive bush honeysuckle.
In 1949 #Naturalist Aldo Leopold said: “One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen.”
Spot on, Aldo. Spot on. 😭
#invasivespecies #BushHoneysuckle #masternaturalist #killitwithfire
We have a front garden that gets limited rainwater and has dappled sunlight from a maple tree.
The closer to the house, the less rainwater it receives.
We previously had a "traditional" garden in there, but very few of the plants survived, with some notable and noxious exceptions.
I ripped it out earlier this summer, and now I'm looking to fill it back out.
My plan is currently to fill the back portion with #BushHoneysuckle. #gardening #HamOnt
OK- but what can you do?
Knowledge is key. Now that you know what to look for it will stick out and hopefully call you to action.
I have some good news! #invasive #bushhoneysuckle has shallow roots so it is easy to pull particularly when the ground is damp and not frozen. Excellent stress relief!
This terrible no good plant can get up to 20-ft tall 😱. Here’s a mature specimen @Jillianmarisa and I spotted yesterday at a nature preserve that hasn’t gotten much attention and is in dire condition. 😭
The #bushhoneysuckle is in the front. There’s a shag bark hickory in back. Kinda sorta similar bark texture, but the tree is a tree (one trunk) and is shaggy.
On younger #InvasiveSpecies #bushhoneysuckle growth it’s easy to identify little nodes every few inches. Here are a few examples.
If you aren’t sure if a plant is #invasive #bushhoneysuckle, break a branch off. Its easy behave the branches are pretty fragile. The inside is usually hollow, and is often green.
#invasive #bushhoneysuckle was introduced to North America from Asia and spreads prolifically.
It is among one of the first plants to green in spring, and one of the last to die off in winter keeping its leaves into November. With its longer growing season it has a distinct advantage against native plants allowing it to out-compete them.
Becoming a #naturalist here in #Missouri has been quite eye-opening.
Let me share one way.
This is an educational rant about an incredibly #invasive, terrible plant: #bushhoneysuckle.
WARNING: If you read this thread you’ll be broken. Because once you know what it is, you will always see it. Everywhere.
But that’s a good thing because you can share the knowledge with others and maybe yank some, too. Thus giving #nativeplants a chance.
Anyway, proceed with caution…
We’re heading to a city park to do some work with our #naturalist group. Today’s focus is war on invasive bush honeysuckles which out compete native plants. It will be nice to play in the dirt as it’s been a long winter so far.
I went to see a presentation w/ @Jillianmarisa this morning. The speaker was a well-known and adored #KC area #mastergardener. She was clicking through her slides and came to a beautiful shrub and asked if anyone had heard of it. Shockingly no one had. Then she said it was a relative of #BushHoneysuckle and the whole room gasped. 😂 Everyone hates BH. It’s invasive. Even if this thing isn’t, I imagine folks couldn’t bare planting a relative.
