In Defense of Nature

 

CONDON’S CORNER

 The Value of “Invasive” Plants

[Published February 26, 2025, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia]

https://dailyprogress.com/opinion/column/article_bd5a59a4-f3d7-11ef-9d44-dbecc45fb578.html

[Also published on March 17, 2025 by The Daily News-Record, the daily newspaper of Harrisonburg, Virginia]

© Marlene A. Condon 2025 All Rights Reserved 

French philosopher Henri Bergson is quoted as saying, “The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.” In the case of “invasive” plants, most people’s minds are prepared only to see useless alien plants pushing out native plants and posing a threat to us and our native wildlife.

 

In other words, having been repeatedly exposed to the misleading invasive-plant narrative recounted day after day on television news and public television programs, as well as in newspaper and magazine articles, people see what they’ve been told to see. But what they think they see is not reality. It’s the mis- and even dis-information with which their minds have been filled.

 

Herewith, truisms regarding the wildlife value of so-called invasive plants that only the unbiased eye can see.

 

Autumn Olive (Elaeagnus umbellata) This Asian shrub is the most valuable plant for wildlife usage I’ve ever documented, yet it is, perhaps, the most hated of “invasive” plants. Because it’s easily seen filling in old farm fields and highway medians, usually alongside the native Eastern Redcedar (Juniperus virginiana)—once also despised by farmers—it appears to be overly numerous.

 

Yet we should be thankful for this plant. Like the redcedar, it’s a colonizer working to refurbish degraded soil that has been compacted by cows or bulldozers and is nutrient-poor due to loss of topsoil—conditions most native plants find difficult or impossible to grow in. But unlike the native juniper, Autumn Olive feeds a huge variety of wildlife with its buds, blooms, fruits, and even its leaves, thus dispensing vital nutrition throughout the year. By increasing the diversity of plant life in degraded areas, Autumn Olive increases the diversity of wildlife as well. 

 

Burning Bush (Euonymus alatus). Almost equal in value to the Autumn Olive, this Asian shrub also provides a cornucopia of food in the form of buds, blooms, fruits, and stems for an array of wildlife, in addition to nesting sites for birds.

 

English Ivy(Hedera helix L.) Brought here by early European colonists, English Ivy is a superb vine for assisting pollinators and birds in disrupted soils (old homesteads and more-recent development). It makes flowers in fall when many blooming plants are petering out, and the resulting blue fruits persist into winter.  A plant that spreads mainly by vegetative growth, it’s typically found only where people dwelled long ago or more currently, having been deliberately planted by them.

The interestingly shaped fruits of English Ivy (Hedera helix L.) near the end of December help to feed local and migratory birds at the edge of a restaurant’s parking lot in Charlottesville.

 

Japanese Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) Once disparaged as much as Autumn Olive is now, this vine is a wonderful wildlife plant. In this time of climate change, especially, nonnative plants are much more reliable in their habits and can be counted on to assist animals that come out of hibernation or migrate back too early to receive sustenance from still-dormant native plants. Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, in particular, benefit from its early blooms loaded with nectar upon its return to our area in April.  

 

Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana) Native to East Asia and spreading for the same reasons other “invasive” plants move away from their original locations, this  species grows profusely in the disrupted soils of retired farmland and disturbed areas of old and new developments. The multitude of trees in limited areas— eye-catching in spring due to the white flowers conspicuously covering every bough— draws attention to their presence. Only because these wildlife-friendly trees are nonnative do folks complain about them, but they shouldn’t. In this time of pollinators struggling to survive, Bradford Pears are a lifeline, supplying a large supply of nectar for bees and numerous other kinds of insects. The fruits are especially important to wintering birds.  

A blooming Bradford Pear (Pyrus calleryana) stands alone in a sea of native trees, the only woody plant able to feed native pollinators flying on a March day. 

 

Royal Paulownia (Paulownia tomentosa) Originating in Eastern Asia, this large tree was admired just a few decades ago for its unusually large purple flowers that opened in spring. But with the big push for only native plants to occupy the landscape, people have been cutting down these unique trees. What’s left are empty spaces unable to provide the wealth of food the Paulownias once did. The huge foxglove-shaped blooms hold an abundance of nectar for pollinators and transform into pods of tiny seeds beloved by finches, especially the American Goldfinch and the Purple Finch from farther north.

 

Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) A lovely herbaceous plant that blooms well into fall, even during severe droughts, this invaluable plant is targeted for removal by folks who are against nonnative plants and ignorant of their great worth to wildlife. Black Knapweed is one of the few plants our overabundance of deer refrain from eating, even when food is scarce. Without this species of knapweed growing in my yard in 2024, bees, beetles, and butterflies would have died, especially those still active in late fall as the heat of summer endured into fall.

A Pennsylvania Leatherwing beetle (Chauliognathus pennsylvanicus) finds nourishment on a Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) bloom in September in the author’s yard.

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) Once considered the scourge of lawns, this small, yellow-blooming herbaceous plant has practically disappeared from towns and subdivisions, thanks to pesticides. They might be lost in rural areas, too, as people have become obsessed with manicuring (sanitizing) the environment. But it should be noted that they feed pollinators, sometimes even on warm winter days when nothing else is blooming and insects are active.  

 

People need to recognize the significant roles “invasive” plants play in our environment.

 

NATURE ADVICE:

All “invasive” plants provide one or more of the following environmental services:

·    Holding soil along degraded waterways (think Japanese Knotweed) and on steep, barren slopes in yards (e.g., English Ivy)

·    Enriching nutrient-poor soil with nitrogen by way of nitrogen-fixing roots (e.g., Autumn Olive) and/or decomposition of the plant after it, or sections of it, dies

·    If evergreen, furnishing shelter in winter where wildlife can sleep and/or roost (e.g., Japanese Honeysuckle)

·    In summer, supplying nesting sites (e.g., Japanese Barberry) for some kinds of birds and a place for some kinds of insects to lay eggs (e.g., Royal Paulownia)

·    Feeding pollinators with nectar-filled blooms (e.g., Burning Bush)

·    Feeding birds and/or mammals with fruits, buds, seeds, and/or leaves (e.g., Ailanthus)

·    During drought, making drinking water and/or sap available to birds and insects by guttation (e.g., bamboo).    

A pair of goldfinches visit a small bamboo (subfamily Bambusoideae) stem in the author’s yard to obtain water and/or sap.