Before non-native plants achieved a hate-rating high enough to have their images applied to “WANTED: Dead, Not Alive” posters, native plants filled that role rather well (to the consternation of agrarians who sailed to the ‘new world’). I’m not an agriculture historian, but I can guarantee you that many a choice word has been used for certain native plants that were seen as creating problems for these farmers who were busy transforming the landscape of their new home. Virginia Cedar didn’t know it was pestiferous (alternate host for cedar apple rust) until colonists started planting apple trees. Supposedly, 2025 will mark the 400th anniversary of the first apple orchard in this country. Long ago, laws were made banning this native plant from its home range (it’s not just the Indians that got the shaft back in the day). Before the redcedar was deemed a ‘pest’, it was minding its own business providing fruit and cover for many kinds of birds.I watched a peanut documentary (sounds cute, doesn’t it?) the other day. An older black guy ‘reminisced’ about all the ragweed (Common Ragweed) he would have to clear away from his peanut field each growing season. In other words, plants need not be non-native to be a royal pain in the you know what. A Giant Ragweed provides the backdrop for the aforementioned Common Ragweed. The learning never ends, here, at the Invasive Plant Society.Trumpet Creeper is a good wildlife plant. Winter birds and squirrels love the seeds. And then, of course, there are the hummingbirds. It readily sprouts from seeds and makes a pretty deep taproot. My advice for some measure of control: at the end of the season, remove browning seed pods before they open and pile them somewhere for mammals to ‘process’.
