Researching Invasive Plants

References for Researching Native Plants

Photo by Emmy Ulmschneider

By Emmy Ulmschneider, Master Gardener

You are ready to take the plunge and move to a more well-adapted regional landscape.  But where do you start?   The good news is you do not have to start by eliminating the landscape plants you already have and replanting!  Most of the plants we grow are mannerly or well adapted.  Only a small percentage, roughly 15%, become an ecological threat, an invasive species.  So how do you know?  Where can you go for information?  What resources are there to help you?  The answer is there are many online, print, and book resources.  There are also people resources in local Master Gardener or Master Naturalist chapters.  Educating yourself may be the start of your own journey towards the beauty and life one finds in a more native landscape.  So, let’s get started!

·        Identify the plants you have.   Are your landscape plants an invasive threat or not?  You do not have to throw the baby out with the bathtub water!  Start by seeing what invasive plants you do grow.  Check to see if the plant you have is on the Invasive Plant Database from the Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) website.  https://www.npsot.org/resources/invasive-plant-database/     You can sort the information by growth form, such as tree, vine, shrub, or by the plant name if you know it.  Or just scroll through the pictures of invasive plants found in Texas.  Once you have the name you can easily gather more information.  From the Invasive Plant database click  directly on the More Invasive Resources tab or go directly:   https://www.npsot.org/resources/invasive-plant-database/invasive-plant-resources/     Once there you can search for more NPSOT resources, link to other relevant online websites dealing with invasive plants, or review relevant books about natives and invasive plants.       

·        Decide to grow or remove your plant.  Once you have more information about the plant, do you want to grow it?  What kind of ecological threat does your identified plant pose?  For instance, Chinese Pistache, Pistacia chinensis, a common landscape tree in Midland, is not considered to be invasive in all parts of Texas.  It is invasive in central Texas where removal is recommended.  (See https://www.texasinvasives.org/plant_database/detail.php?symbol=PICH4          If you decide to eradicate or control the plant, where do you start?  What alternatives to chemical herbicides might there be?  Once again, the resources section of the NPSOT website can help you answer these questions.   

·        Find a native alternative.  The NPSOT website makes this easy.  Under the section titled Native Plants you can gain more native plant information, learn about or access plant lists and find out where to go to see or obtain native plants.  To use their Native Plant database, you will need to know our ecoregion which you can do on their website.    Our area is on the intersection of three ecoregions, so in addition to the Rolling Plains ecoregion you might also look at the plants for the Trans Pecos and the Edwards Plateau ecoregions. 

Knowledge is power!  You can easily learn all you need to know and along the way, you just might find a new passion. 

If you have questions, call the AgriLife office in Odessa at 498-4071 or in Midland at 686-4700.   Additional information, and our blog for access to past articles, is available at westtexasgardening.org.  Click on “Resources.”

Female Chinese Pistache Tree Leafing Out

Photo by Emmy Ulmschneider