CONDON'S CORNER

Everyone Should Have A Mimosa Tree

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved 

  [Published July 28, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and published July 30, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

After you drive by sprayed and now yellowed Mimosa trees around Charlottesville, you might want to contact the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors. Please let them know it’s not smart to destroy limited food sources for wildlife (bees, butterflies, moths, caterpillars, birds, and mammals) in developed areas where food is already in short supply, thanks to the human obsession with “neatness”.

Everyone Should Have a Mimosa Tree

On June 9, I happened to be on Hillsdale Drive in Albemarle County where I was extremely dismayed to see that most, if not all, of the Mimosa trees had been sprayed and were now yellow. Thanks to Governor Spanberger’s recent signing of four bills into law that will supposedly “work to prevent and manage the spread of invasive plants across the Commonwealth”, someone had apparently gotten right out there to spray poisons on Albemarle County property to kill these trees that are considered “invasive”.

 

[Note: I tried for weeks to find out from local government officials who had performed this task but was never provided an answer.]

 

https://www.29news.com/2026/04/12/four-bills-targeting-spread-invasive-plants-signed-into-virginia-law/

 

Lauren Taylor, executive director of Blue Ridge PRISM, claimed in this same news release that “people are recognizing the harms that these [invasive plants] are causing to our farms, to our parks, to our waterways, to our own backyards, and to the wildlife that we cherish”. However, the truth is more akin to these folks simply having a bad case of selective botanophobia, in which they believe alien plants are harmful or dangerous to our world.

 

https://worldlawyersforum.org/news/four-bills-targeting-spread-of-invasive-plants-signed-into-virginia-law/

 

Ms. Taylor went on to say that “Invasive plants are all around us and they are causing harm to the things that we love”, which refers to them “negatively impacting our children’s future and our grandchildren’s future — and removing invasive plants, controlling invasive plants is really key to our quality of life and the quality for people’s future.”

 

However, the truth is far different from this assessment, and everyone can see it for themselves. All you need to do is open your eyes to your environment to ascertain whether these plants are helping our wildlife to survive in the degraded areas where people have planted mainly lawn grass and a few shrubs or trees here and there.

 

If you truly care about our wildlife, I urge you to contact Blue Ridge Prism, Governor Spanberger, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, The Department of Wildlife Resources, and any organization spouting this misinformation regarding so-called “invasive” plants. [Contact information is provided at the end of the photo section below.]  Tell them plants seem “invasive” only because they can grow in the many degraded areas that people create in which native plants struggle to survive. 

Herewith a small sampling of the critters that could have been helped by those Mimosa trees that were sprayed with herbicides that are not only dangerous to the plants, but also to any insects, birds, or other critters that were on those trees when this action was taken.

 

Make no mistake about it, the destruction of those Mimosa trees—and many other such non-native plants—is literally an environmental crime against nature.

The day-flying Hummingbird Moth was much more common years ago than it is now, perhaps because of Mimosas being sprayed with pesticides that are poisonous to our insects.

 

A Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly obtains nectar at Mimosa blooms.

A long, healthy-looking caterpillar on a Mimosa lets you know it’s been feeding on this tree for some time and is doing well.

An inchworm (caterpillar) on a Mimosa illustrates the diversity of life that makes use of this non-native plant.

A Gray Squirrel grabs a Mimosa seed pod from which it can get the nourishment it requires to maintain health. 

An Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeds itself at Mimosa blooms while providing beauty to the observer.

A female Northern Cardinal feeds upon Mimosa seeds in the author’s backyard.  

CONTACT INFORMATION:

 

Blue Ridge Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM), PO Box 119, White Hall, VA 22987

 

Governor Abigail Spanberger, Phone: 1-804-786-2211 Main address: P.O. Box 1475 Richmond, VA 23218

 

Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, 600 East Main Street, 24th floor,| Richmond, VA 23219-2094 | 804-786-6124

 

Virgina Department of Wildlife Resources, https://dwr.virginia.gov/contact/, Phone: 804-367-1000

 

CONDON’S CORNER

An Overdeveloped World Doesn’t Support Wildlife

 

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved 

  [Published July 9, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and published July 11, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), a native plant in Europe, is one of the best plants for surviving drought conditions and also feeding insects, such as this Common Buckeye butterfly.  

“An Over-developed World Doesn’t Support Wildlife”

 

I’ve been an observer of the natural world for—literally—as long as I can remember. My very first memory is of walking along the city sidewalk with my older sister as she pushed a baby carriage containing our baby brother. As he is two and half years younger than I am, I know I must have been approaching the age of three as it was springtime—the time of my own birth—and my brother had been born at the end of the previous year. 

 

The city sidewalks were busy with large red-and-black ants going about their own lives as we went about ours. I possess many such memories of my earliest years of life as I seem to have been born with an avid interest in nature.

 

I’m now several decades beyond my youth and I have never lost my fascination with this aspect of life. Consequently, I possess thousands of photos I’ve taken of the natural world that attest to the attraction of nonnative plants to our wildlife. Thus, the push to rid our environment of alien plants is quite concerning to me.   

 

If our world wasn’t so developed (covered over with buildings and roadways) to accommodate humans, we wouldn’t have an abundance of alien plants populating human-disturbed areas (e.g., road margins where the nutritious and friable topsoil has long since been removed and poor subsoil left behind).

 

The reality is that the “intent” of nonnative plants is to keep the environment working as it should. Alien plants fare better in such areas (generally speaking) than native plants that have been here for millennia.

 

Native plants do best in the rich, built-up-over-centuries soil that preceded the arrival of Europeans and folks of many other nationalities, whereas many so-called invasive plants do well in the nutrient-poor soil left over from construction, roadside-grading, winter-salting of roads, highway department-mowing along roads, deposition of vehicle-exhaust chemicals, etc., etc.

 

Thus, we are lucky that humans transported—intentionally or not—alien plants to our land because we would instead have bare ground following development. Unlike the topsoil that is removed or despoiled by development, subsoil can support far fewer organisms (such as bacteria and earthworms), which is the reason it’s less fertile than the soil that would normally sit above it.

 

No matter what town you live in nowadays, you are bound to see development taking place to rob yet more land from the local critters. Consequently, the only way to help wildlife survive is to turn homeowners’ properties into nature-friendly gardens that can well support our local fauna. But do you see that happening? Not much.

 

Instead, you still see most homeowners mowing huge swaths of lawn that not only pollute the environment, but which also may serve only to support our overpopulation of deer—yet another current huge environmental problem. Consider that deer prefer to eat native plants (although they eat many nonnative plants as well) and you have to wonder why there isn’t a big hue-and-cry from native-plant enthusiasts for the government (i.e., the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources) to cut down the deer herd immediately to sustainable levels.

 

After all, how can anyone expect native plants to survive when we have a surplus of native deer to eat them? Yet the popular narrative continues to be that “invasive” plants are the biggest problem facing native plants, even though so-called invasive plants look invasive only because they fill areas cleared of native plants by mankind or deer.

 

This situation—in which the basic problem of too many deer is not addressed first—is very similar to what’s been happening in the Chesapeake Bay since the early 1960s. Throughout all of this time, our scientists have kept replanting native submerged grasses into a body of water that has, all along, remained hostile to the growth of these plants. The fact is that without first reducing the destructive consequences of sediment and nutrient pollution entering the Bay—thanks to what people are doing upstream—native grasses simply cannot possibly thrive there.

 

Likewise, the scientists’ answer to native-plant decline on land is also to tell folks to keep planting more native plants despite the untenable growing conditions of depleted soils, an overabundance of deer, and often, year after year now of drought or near-drought. One could say that a dearth of critical thinking appears to be ongoing in Virginia with no sign of this situation getting better anytime soon.

 

Consider that so-called invasive plants can be downright life-saving. They can survive not only our degraded physical environment, but also drought—both of which have become much more commonly occurring—while still feeding our wildlife. 2026 is the perfect time to be taking this truth into consideration.

“Leatherleaf Mahonia” (Mahonia bealei) is considered “invasive” in Albemarle and Augusta counties (among some other counties in Virginia), even though it’s not that commonly seen. Its flowers feed honeybees foraging in February when they may be the only blooms open, and its fruits feed birds (such as the female Northern Cardinal seen here) in late spring.    

I live in western Albemarle where we’ve received barely 50% of the amount of rain we should have received for the first five months of the year. The plants had continued to look good only because the weather had been on the cool side.

 

But now, as I write this article, we are experiencing hot summertime weather even though summer has not even officially begun and it’s already been 11 days with nary a drop of rain locally. Neither native plants nor animals do well under these conditions, the plants struggling to survive and unable to make fruits or seeds to feed wildlife.

 

On the other hand, nonnative plants often do fine under hot, overly dry conditions. My yard has many perennial Black Knapweed (Centaurea nigra) plants, the flowers of which feed numerous butterflies, bees, and insects of many kinds. Two Glossy Abelia (Abelia x grandiflora) shrubs do the same all summer along with my two Mimosa trees (Albizia julibrissin) that also attract Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.

 

I can’t stress enough that every yard should contain a mix of native and “invasive” plants to help our wildlife to survive. Current environmental conditions simply do not allow for environmental propaganda that is not based in fact.

 

The choice is yours to make. Choose unwisely and we lose many critters forever.

 

 

 Condon’s Corner

With native trees dying, it’s time to embrace “invasive” plants

© Marlene A. Condon 2026 All Rights Reserved

[Published May 14, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and published May 16, 2026, by The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.] 

 

Oaks have been dying for many years now, and more species are following suit, such as White Pine (Pinus strobus) and Tulip Poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera). If you expect to feed and care for our wildlife, grow plants erroneously called “invasive” and fight new restrictions placed upon doing so.

The Daily Progress newspaper of April 16, 2026 included this article headline: “Outpacing evolution: Scientists using DNA to battle climate change”. Apparently, scientists have given up on getting people to change their ways to avoid climate problems brought about by our extensive employment of fossil fuels.

Instead, they’ve decided it would be “easier” (don’t believe it) to completely alter the genetic blueprint for the estimated one million species facing extinction so these creatures can tolerate climate extremes, disease, and drought. In other words, man has finally begun to think of himself as God, the Almighty. (The hubris!)

You can see the acceptance of our situation by other news stories, too, such as an AOL story that told us, “As the planet warms, scientists burn homes to figure out how to best protect them in wildfires.” Even more concernedly, some scientists are putting a positive spin on what’s happening: “Five ecosystems transformed by climate change give birth to new, sometimes even richer worlds.” [From an ad for a PBS program]

And then, AOL recently published, “Climate doom and gloom? Try laughing instead. Activists embrace joy in the fight to save Earth”. If only it were a laughing matter, but here in Virginia, it isn’t.

On April 9 of this year, abc7News printed an article about Virginia’s recently elected governor, Abigail Spanberger, signing bills to create “4 laws to combat invasive plant species in Virginia”.

Gov. Spanberger signs 4 laws to combat invasive plant species in Virginia

The article states that the bills will “protect the state's land, water, and wildlife.” It quotes executive director, Laurn Yatkor, of Blue Ridge PRISM, an environmental group “that helped draft three of the four new laws.”

She’s quoted as saying that “Invasive plants are one of the most urgent and under-recognized threats to Virginia’s pollinators, songbirds, livestock, waterways, tree canopy, and recreational parks,” She goes on to say, “The scope and the scale of the problem are vast, and it will take a village to repair the damage done and ensure a healthy environment for future generations.”

But where’s the factual information to support these statements? None exists because nothing could be further from the truth. Removing so-called invasive plants will only deplete desperately needed food and habitat for our critters and doom them to the extinction people supposedly are trying to avoid.

When you truly want to do what’s best, you take the time to make sure you understand the problems, rather than simply repeating dogma put forth by numerous groups who don’t actually know how the environment works.

We are told that these “new laws aim to support long-term solutions that are more effective at prevention and species management. Specifically, it illegalizes the planting of invasive species along state highways, expands the Noxious Weeds List, incentivizes local jurisdictions to raise funds to control invasive species, and gives state agencies the ability to use volunteers to control invasive species on state lands.” Yikes.

What are the alternatives to planting “invasive” species along our highways? For numerous decades, Virginia insisted upon nonnative lawn grass as the only plant to be used there, despite the huge cost—monetarily and environmentally—to keep it mowed regularly throughout the growing season. Yes, grass had to be kept cut due to societal expectations for this type of plant, which you can see all around you locally as you drive by the vast majority of yards.

Even now, with the number of mowings reduced to twice a year, we still spend an enormous amount of money on Virginia’s almost 60,000 miles of interstate, primary, secondary, and frontage roads.

But the beauty of leaving these strips to do their own thing throughout much of the growing season is that a huge number of nonnative wildflowers have moved in, creating beauty and interest for the traveler. Now this scenery will be replaced by native plants that are not going to thrive along interstates. After numerous decades of constant mowing, the soil has been compacted, which is not conducive to native plants that have mostly evolved within forests of loose, rich soil.

Common sense should tell you that the best plants for degraded habitats are, therefore, plants known as “invasive” because they do so well in areas where the land would otherwise be quite barren because native plants would struggle. In point of fact, the term “invasive” is a prejudicial word meant to fool people into believing these alien plants are somehow “bad” and thus should be hated and removed.

And, adding insult to injury, nonnative plants are usually removed with pesticides that poison the ground, the plants they’re used on, and any organisms that happen to be upon the plants when the pesticide is applied.

Yet, in truth, so-called invasive plants are actually critically vital saviors, not only for our wildlife but for our native plants! Over the course of time, nonnative plants rebuild the soil so that native plants can one day return. And, in the meantime, they feed and/or provide nesting sites for our wildlife so they can survive.

Indeed, we should be grateful for alien plants that can grow in degraded areas instead of denigrating them out of prejudice based upon ignorance that’s been taught from elementary school on up for some decades now. And to think such useful plants are now going to be added to an official “noxious weeds” list, a name that is exceedingly pejorative and is probably employed to slyly implant the idea in people’s minds that they should feel contempt for alien plants.

But should they? Absolutely not. So-called invasive plants feed Virginia’s insects and hummingbirds with nectar or pollen and songbirds with fruits or seeds—a truth native-plant folks are loathe to accept.

These new laws meant to “help” wildlife will instead shepherd its demise. If you own property and truly care about our critters, my advice is do not follow the recommendations of government agencies and groups like PRISM who influence them. Stand up for what is truly best for our environment.  

 

CONDON’S CORNER

Nature’s Best Hope: “Invasive” Plants

© Marlene A. Condon 2025 All Rights Reserved

[Published January 27, 2026, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia.]   

 

People’s desire to “sanitize” the natural world is highly destructive because it destroys habitat for wildlife. Additionally, when all of the shrubby undergrowth along a stream is cleared away (as seen here), the owner is likely to suffer loss of soil due to erosion in a severe rain event.

Recently a number of posts were made on the Virginia Bird List-serve (a website where birders comment on anything having to do with birds) regarding quite a decrease in the numbers of birds seen this fall. One woman, from the Mount Vernon area of Fairfax County, commented that she had been noticing “this for several months now, particularly the local birds. Numbers are way down. I am hoping that the abundant natural foods are more enticing to them, but I have lots of oak trees, beech trees, winterberry holly and native perennials and shrubs that should be drawing the birds to my yard.  They are just not here…”

If you realize the important roles birds play in our environment, such as helping to limit plant-feeding invertebrates as well as excess numbers of plants by eating their fruits or seeds, the above comment that birds “are just not here”—despite supposedly ideal plant conditions in the commenter’s area —should frighten you. Even more concerning is that a dearth of avian species confirms what I’ve been observing for decades now: a dearth of insect species for them and other animals to feed upon. And it’s not only animal life, but also plant life that impacts our critters’ ability to continue on.

Over the past several decades, more years have been drought-stricken, meaning plants don’t get the amount of water they need to survive and reproduce well. This situation greatly affects native plants because they evolved under better conditions of adequate rainfall for their needs. 

Additionally, the overpopulation of deer in Virginia that has been the case for many years means too many plants get eaten by them, not only depriving birds of food, but also cover where they can sleep, roost, and nest.

Without sufficient food and habitat, many kinds of wildlife cannot reproduce as it should and is, therefore, bound to die off. Indeed, each passing year has made clear that not only do we have fewer and fewer birds, but also many other kinds of animals.

The only saving grace that has helped our wildlife survive this long is the presence of so-called invasive plants that people love to hate. Many of these plants are not (yet) eaten by deer, and they can survive the drought conditions that have become so prevalent these days. Yet even these plants can hardly make a go of it, thanks to a majority of people weed-whacking and mowing every last bit of land they own. I live in a rural area of western Albemarle where homeowners not only limit plants on their properties, but also all along roadways, ditches, and old fence rows. Needless to say, this type of “sanitizing” occurs in suburban and urban areas as well.

Poor people and wildlife both suffer the ravages of sanitization. “Waste places”, which should more accurately be seen as natural areas, allow plants and animals to eke out a living, just as those with limited incomes do in trailer parks. Precious-few wild areas exist anywhere to support wildlife, just as precious-few living arrangements are now available for those with small incomes.

Both are viewed in the same disparaging way, as if both are a blight in need of "renewal". But please note: As a poor college student dependent upon grants and work-study programs, I myself lived in a trailer, which was conveniently located near the university I attended. I’d have to say those were some of the best years of my life as I worked to make my dream of getting a college degree come true. And, living in a rural area, I was able to continue my life-long learning about the “weeds” wildlife lived upon.

For a long time now, schools have been teaching children that “invasive” plants are very bad and should be eliminated. When these children become adults, they learn to use pesticides to remove the plants and, consequently, poison the environment. They work at places like Charlottesville Parks & Rec, removing “invasive” plants practically year-around, leaving precious little food or cover behind for birds and other critters.

If native plants could survive in today's world of altered environmental conditions, they—instead of alien plants—would already be growing there. Unfortunately, people have embraced this nonsensical obsession with getting rid of so-called invasive plants that can survive drought and poor soil conditions and thus assist our wildlife to keep it alive. 

I’ve always grown both native and nonnative plants on my property. I’ve witnessed what has happened over the past half a century and have recognized the true value of “invasive” plants. Read most of the articles I’ve had published over the past 35 years and you’ll see my photos of many kinds of creatures making use of the very plants people insist upon removing.

Environmental circumstances have changed, making it terribly difficult for native plants to do well. The anti-invasive-plant movement has done far more harm than good, which means wildlife numbers will continue to drop as long as people adhere to this false dogma.

There can be no denying that Nature’s best hope in a human-degraded world are so-called invasive plants.

 

 

CONDON’S CORNER

“Invasives” Reality Check: Negative Impacts on Biodiversity Negligible

[Published March 1, 2025, by The Daily Progress, the daily newspaper of Charlottesville, Virginia, and The News Virginian, the daily newspaper of Waynesboro, Virginia. ] 

ALL TEXT AND PHOTOS © 2025 Marlene A. Condon All Rights Reserved 

What appears to the inexpert eye to be “plant invasiveness” is actually plant succession, whereby alien pioneer plants better suited to growing well in the disrupted soil conditions created by man—as seen taking place here—have moved in to refurbish a razed natural area.   

A native Northern Cardinal finds sustenance by consuming the seeds from an Asian Mimosa (Albizia julibrissin) tree in the author’s yard on a fall day.

Before writing this article, I saw yet another discussion on social media about woods being cleared for more development. In Charlottesville and Waynesboro over the past few months, I’ve been stunned by the absolutely enormous areas of red clay made visible by bulldozers pushing down trees and other kinds of plants. And I’ve wondered how, in the face of all this destruction of natural areas, does anyone believe the most pressing problem for our wildlife can possibly be “invasive” plants?

 

This abundance of development makes completely clear what the biggest problem is for the environment: too many people on the planet—8.2 billion and increasing every moment. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

 

Although discussing our booming numbers is considered impolite, if not taboo, it's vital for folks to be made aware of the ensuing consequences of human overpopulation.

 

According to WorldAtlas.com (a site that provides content about the environment and other subject matter), human exploitation of resources —e.g., overhunting, overfishing, and poaching endangered species—is responsible for a 37% loss in wildlife biodiversity. Habitat degradation and alteration accounts for a further 31.4% loss, with complete habitat loss being responsible for another 13.4%. These three causes comprise the major reasons for wildlife depletion at almost 82%.

 

But what is the most publicized explanation for wildlife losses? So-called “invasives”. Yet “invasive” species rank fifth out of the seven major causes of decline in wildlife populations worldwide, accounting for only 5.1% of the loss in biodiversity. As this category includes nonnative animals, I suspect that nonnative animals are the real problem rather than nonnative plants. Non-native animals compete for space (habitat), whereas all plants provide environmental services that assist wildlife. Only in rare instances might alien plants be problematic, such as in wetlands.

 

Isn’t it time to focus on problems that are far more impactful and solvable than removing “invasive” plants that do assist wildlife to survive in degraded areas? Cats, for example, are estimated to kill 1.3-4.0 billion birds and 6.3 -22.3 billion mammals annually in the United States.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms2380

 

If people truly care about our wildlife, why has it been impossible to eliminate this longtime threat to our critters? The answer: Thanks to vocal proponents of letting both pet and feral cats roam freely, people are reluctant to take on this battle.

 

Whether it’s a private individual who doesn’t want to make his neighbor angry, or politicians who worry more about votes than doing what’s right for the greater good (wildlife keeps the environment running properly), people find it easier to kill plants. And, of course, they themselves may even agree with allowing cats outside.

 

Then there are the many other aspects of human lives that people simply don’t want to change. Blaming plants you don’t care about might be preferable to shutting off your outdoor lights that, during warm weather, attract insects that should be mating, such as moths that have declined precipitously,

 

Some folks give little thought to all the animals they kill while driving and thus don’t limit their trips out and about even though they could with better planning. They should also consider the pollution of the soil and water caused by runoff of the gas and oil that collects on roadways and parking lots.

 

And you might think people would care about the pollution caused by vehicle exhaust, a leading cause of climate change that affects both wildlife and people. You can drive by any public school in your area before classes begin or end and see a long line of cars waiting to get into or out of the school grounds, even though buses drive by or close to these people’s homes twice a day.

 

Another serious threat to wildlife is the use of pesticides around homes and businesses, not to mention the pesticides employed in the war on so-called invasive plants.

 

You can, as an individual, help stem the loss of wildlife by giving serious consideration to the actions listed above and limiting how much you participate in them. If you truly care about the future of the Earth and our lives upon this planet, you should step up to the plate.

 

Contact local politicians and make them understand the need to pass a law that demands that cats be kept indoors. It should go without saying that anyone who truly cares about these animals wouldn’t want them to be outside in cold weather (they originated in warm-climate areas) and to be exposed to the dangers outside, such as being run over by a vehicle or sickened by disease.

 

The problems are many, but obvious and fixable. We just need folks to stop focusing on the 5% (alien plants and animals they see as “weeds” and “vermin”, respectively) and start focusing on the 95% (everything else) that truly damages the environment, leading to a great loss of biodiversity.

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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]

© 2025 Marlene A. Condon 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.

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