TIMOTHY DALY: Avoid using plants with invasive tendencies

In Georgia, we are fortunate that our climate allows for many garden plants to be grown. Both native and non-native plants beautify home landscapes. However, a few plants are invasive, which can overtake the landscape and natural areas. They pose a threat to the biological diversity of the local environment as well as cause economic loss.

What causes these plants to be so invasive? Over time, native plants in different parts of the world have evolved in a specific geographic location where they have developed strong interactions with the surrounding land, wildlife, and each other. Their populations have been controlled by climatic, geographic factors, and natural predators. However, when these plants are transported from their native environments to other parts of the world with a similar climate and geography lacking these natural controls, sometimes they have the potential to spread rapidly and overrun local plant communities.