Invasive plants move fast

Japanese knotweed is strangling native plants in southern New England.

— Photo by harum.koh

A barberry shoot

— Photo by MPF

Text excerpted from an ecoRI News article by Frank Carini

“An international team of scientists recently discovered that nonnative species are expanding their ranges up to 1,000 times faster than native ones, in large part due to human help…. {New England has seen a massive invasion of non-native plants, such as barberry, in recent decades.}

“Barberry was brought to the United States from Japan and eastern Asia in the late 1800s…. {T}he prickly shrub easily spreads into woodlands, pastures, and meadows, where, like many invasives imported from faraway lands, it strangles native species.

“{R}esearchers found that even seemingly sedentary nonnative plants are moving at three times the speed of their native counterparts in a race where, because of the rapid pace of climate change and its effect on habitat, speed matters.’’

Here’s the whole article.