INVASIVE SPECIES AWARENESS PROGRAM

Brazilian pepper should not be cultivated because a) it is disruptive of natural communities and species; b) it causes skin rashes and respiratory irritation in many people. Brazilian pepper plants should be cut off near the ground and the stump painted with a systemic herbicide.

An alternative source of Christmas berries is the Yaupon or Dahoon holly tree.  These two hollies are also a source of caffeine and antioxidants if a tea is made from boiling their dried leaves for 10 minutes or less.  However, their berries are only for the birds…literally!  (There is a chance for nausea if you boil the leaves longer than 10 minutes.)

Notice the leaves of the Brazilian pepper tend to be wider, more oval shaped, and the veins are more pronounced, while the Dahoon and Yaupon holly leaves are waxier, smaller and more elongated.

Cogan grass is an invasive, non-native grass which occurs in Florida and several other southeastern states. A pest in 73 countries, and considered to be one of the “Top 10 Worst Weeds in the World”, cogan grass affects pine productivity and survival, wildlife habitat, recreation, native plants, fire behavior, site management costs and more. 

Cogan grass may be one of the most damaging invasives in Volusia County due to its threat to pasture land and pine producing. It also increases the risk of wildfires and alters fire behavior. It was introduced into the USA in the early 1900s from Japan and the Philippines. The native range of cogongrass is vast and includes Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia and Australia 

Air potato is an aggressive, herbaceous vine that can attain lengths of 65 feet in a single growing season. Underground tubers may be present or absent. The slender stems twine to the left (counter-clockwise) and are round to slightly angled in cross section. Leaf arrangement is consistently alternate. The thin textured, glabrous (hairless) leaves, which measure from 2 to 10 inches long, are cordate (heart-shaped) with broadly rounded basal lobes, elongated tips and entire margins. The venation is conspicuous on the upper leaf surface.

In Florida, bulbils are spread by gravity and float on water currents. They are also dispersed by heavy machinery and through movement of contaminated brush and soil; therefore, management of Dioscorea bulbifera is generally labor intensive and expensive.

 Tropical soda apple invades pastures, fields, and parks. The soda apple forms thick stands that can be impenetrable to livestock, large wildlife, and humans-mostly because of the numerous thorns on stems and leaves. Flowering occurs year-round, with most reproduction occurring from September to May. The flowers produce 1″ diameter fruit that looks like a tiny watermelon. It has broad leaves and thorns. Tropical soda apple is spread by cattle, deer and other wild animals who feed on the fruit and spread the seeds in their feces, and also through harvested hay and turf grass from an infested pasture. Since each fruit contains hundreds of seeds and each plant can produce 10’s of thousands of seeds, it can be highly prolific. 

So far the only successful control of TSA has been the release of a tiny beetle (gratiana boliviana) into the pasture or field. Since it is a biological control, the beetles continue to thrive as long as there is TSA to consume. For further information and to contact the University of Florida about the beetles, visit this link: https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/solanum-viarum/ 

This tree grows in dense stands because the seeds which fall, and are carried to other locations, are very hardy. They have beautiful fall leaves, which is why many people want to plant them. However, they are invasive and can propagate themselves in the neighbor’s yard where they may be less appreciated.

There are alternatives which supply beautiful fall leaves and are not invasive: Southern red maple, sweetgum, Shumard oak, red oak, and rusty black haw (an understory bush) just to name a few.

Control of Chinese tallow is limited at this time to manual destruction, preventative measures, and chemical control. The sooner they are removed from their location the better the control. For more information on the Chinese tallow, visit: https://plants.ifas.ufl.edu/plant-directory/triadica-sebifera/

This is fern with climbing, twining stems of indeterminate growth. They can form thick masses of ground cover or canopy in trees. Climbing fern can become so dense that they form a “living wall” of vegetation that shades and eliminates necessary undergrowth such as American beauty berry and the tree saplings and seedlings that naturally produce new pine and hard woods. Understory berry plants are food for animals and birds. Because it propagates by spores, this fern is prolific and hard to control.

Control of Japanese climbing fern should begin immediately following discovery. Control measures should be employed when the fern is not producing spores, which occurs in the late summer/early fall.

Old world climbing fern is very similar to the Japanese climbing fern in its habit and highly invasive nature. The leaves are slightly different in shape, having a smooth rather than lobed edge and is found often in cypress swamps. Both species form a fire ladder allowing forest fire to reach the more vulnerable branches above. It is distinguishable by its winding tangled rachis (stem).

Control of this fern is similar to the Japanese fern. Prescribed burning can help, but does not eliminate it altogether. Early discovery and eradication are crucial.

The sprengeri is not a true fern. It originates from South Africa and is in the asparagus family. It is found in large colonies, displacing native ground cover and understory shrubs. Asparagus fern has also escaped into tropical hammocks in Palm Beach County, choking out young native plants such as wild coffee. It is an evergreen plant with long, leggy branches, tiny scale-like leaves and thorns, making trimming and cultivating painful. Sprengeri is invasive because of its habit of overgrowing its planned parameters. It is used for ornamental purposes as ground cover or container plants. It tolerates full sun, whereas fern, usually, do not.

There is an alternative to this expansive plant. The foxtail fern, (pictured at right) also an asparagus, tolerates full sun to partial shade, has branches that stand up, and no thorns. Their shape resembles a bushy fox tail. The berries of both Sprengeri and Foxtail are poisonous.

Evergreen shrub that grows up to 6′ tall with short, dense, soft hairs on the stems. Has 1″ diameter rose colored flowers. Produces a dark purple berry. Will establish a dense one-species thicket in the pine under story ( monoculture). Threatens all other important under story shrubs and new pine growth. Threatens to become worse than Brazilian pepper here in central Florida. Apparently “fire-adapted”, downy rose myrtle re-sprouts prolifically after fires. Some humans reportedly harvest the fruit to make jam.

Sounds like a beautiful useful shrub, doesn’t it? It produces flowers and a berry you can make jam from. It would be, except that it is so proliferative and spreads so easily by seeding (from animal and bird defecation) and will take over the complete under story ecology of a forest, pasture, or your yard.

Alternatives to downy rose myrtle: Rhododendron chapmanii (Florida native azalea species, more on this species at: https://floridata.com/Plants/Apocynaceae/Rhododendron%20chapmanii/1104