Invasive species that should never be planted in North America

by CharlesV_

34 Comments

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  2. lordnecro

    Previous owners of my house planted butterfly bush, wisteria, princess tree, chinese privet, and bradford pear.

    I don’t feel like the butterfly bush has been bad, it isn’t a particularly aggressive spreader and the pollinators seem to love it. Wisteria is the bane of my existence though.

  3. Longjumping-Tip1188

    I heard somebody say that the idea of an invasive species plant is rooted in xenophobia because the nature of plant seeds are to be spread by birds and wind and water and people.

  4. diospyros7

    Are there regions where Mullein is really a major concern? Bush Honeysuckle should be in it’s place

  5. unicoitn

    I have four of those in my yard, planted by a previous owner…plus boxwood

  6. dsmemsirsn

    Never, always— are majority of time bad answers on a test. If a gardener pays attention to what they plant— invasive maybe be controlled

  7. sirkiller475

    Fucking Bradford pear is like the plague

  8. There is a bamboo native to North America. Plant that one everywhere you can.

  9. SlowerThanTurtleInPB

    The work I had to go through to eradicate bamboo.

  10. Hey I got a bingo in my yard with just the first row.

  11. MonsteraBigTits

    i have a 6 millon acre mullein farm, is that a problem?

  12. Left_Apparently

    Love stuff like this. I need to come up with some Native Species to Plant by zone/region.

  13. d13robot

    Butterfly Bushes sold are sterile , so there isn’t the problem of them spreading like crazy anymore

  14. ZeldaFromL1nk

    I have like 4 or 5 in grandma’s garden that has been unkept for 5 years.

  15. Glycoside

    This is really good timing, I got 2 bee balm and a butterfly bush to start taking over more grass and now I’ll just pitch the butterfly bush before planting it. 

  16. rottenweiler

    Bought a house with a Norway maple planted around 20 feet from the house. Besides the copious amounts of pollen in spring, the roots run near the surface and started lifting the concrete walkway near the house on that side so I had to remove it before we started having foundation issues. Beautiful, dense foliage with many branches and cute little greenish flowers before it buried us in pollen each spring but I am glad to be rid of a potential problem.

  17. plsobeytrafficlights

    i wouldnt wish bamboo on my worst enemy.

  18. bbruins91

    Mullein? I mean I don’t intentionally plant them but usually let them stay if I see them. I thought they were beneficial to poor soils and don’t seem to spread all that much.

  19. ConclusionAlarmed882

    You’ll have to pry my butterfly bush from my cold dead hands.

  20. drewbaccaAWD

    I don’t think anyone is intentionally planting knotweed.. that stuff is so obnoxious to deal with.

    We have a burning bush, it’s probably at least 50 years old and planted long before they started getting banned. Personally, I hate it. They grow so fast and choke everything else out if you don’t stay on top of it but it’s not my call to cut it down or it would be gone.

  21. Odd_Adhesiveness6547

    Where is creeping bellflower??

  22. I’ll be sure to show this graphic to all of the privet currently popping up in my gardens.

  23. Yes-GoAway

    Kudzu! Absolutely impossible to get rid of.

  24. buster_rhino

    I just came inside from trying to rip out all the periwinkle in my front garden. Surprised that’s not on the list.

  25. ikindapoopedmypants

    Morning glory is choking out everything in my yard 😔

  26. There are bamboo native to the southeast they form dense canebreaks and are endangered

  27. Armigine

    Huh, I didn’t realize “butterfly bush” was a specific (invasive!) plant. I thought it was “a bush planted for butterfly food and egg habitat”

  28. whitefox094

    Paulowinia does grow where nothing else tends to. It’s also a good identifier for structural issues in buildings.

    That being said, I don’t agree with planting it. BUT if you do have one and it’s shaded out by other trees (instead of being in full sun) definitely make use of the wood for instruments or find someone else who can. Don’t let someone charge you to have it removed.

  29. HalfaYooper

    I had no idea butterfly bushes were invasive. I just bought one from a local nursery. I would have thought it would have been safe if they had sold it.

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