Many species of honeysuckles are native to North America and are sights to behold. Unfortunately, nonnative species can make it more difficult for all native plants to thrive.
In a TikTok by the Forest Preserve District of Will County (@WillCoForests) in Illinois, the organization's program coordinator, Jess McQuown, talks about the damaging effects of Asian honeysuckle.
@willcoforests Program coordiantor Jess McQuown shows us a nasty plant … Asian honeysuckle. #wildflowers #honeysuckle #willcounty #trailadventures #invasivespecies #invasive ♬ original sound - WillCoForests
Also known as golden and silver honeysuckle, this plant's flowers are white and thin. While they're pretty, looks can be deceiving.
"When this was first brought over in the early 1900s," McQuown explained, "the only thing we knew about it was that it smelled wonderful and it was really good for erosion.
"We've since learned that no native insect will pollinate or eat the leaves and that really good job it did at preventing erosion means that its roots were spreading constantly. It is so good at spreading that it is one of our No. 1 invasive species in all of North America."
If you want to remove an invasive honeysuckle from your backyard, McQuown recommended trimming it first. If it has a hollow stem, that means it's an invasive honeysuckle, and you're free to remove it.
If you miss your plant after you remove it, you have a couple of options. If you're on the East Coast, trumpet honeysuckle or common honeysuckle are native alternatives, per Garden Guides.
Planting native in the first place can save you the hassle of removing invasive plants in the future. That's time back in your day and money back in your wallet.
Native honeysuckle will also create biodiversity that nonnative honeysuckle does not, attracting the crucial pollinators that keep our food supply chains intact.
Keeping invasive honeysuckle around does a disservice to the tiniest but most important parts of our ecosystem.
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Should we be actively working to kill invasive species? Click your choice to see results and speak your mind. |
Absolutely 💯 A few people in the comments mentioned how difficult it's been for them to deal with these plants.
One wrote, "We have SO many around our house and they're so hard to get rid of."
"Right up there with kudzu, wisteria, and bamboo," another said.
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