1st Hour 19-20 Language and Composition: Assignment 16

Catherine Lucier

AP Language and Composition

Logsdon 1

December 2019

The Evils of Invasive Plants and What You Can Do

Since the beginning of life on Earth, there have been 5 major extinctions. The sixth is happening as we speak, and humans are the sole cause. Extinction is natural, with a background rate of 1 to 5 species every year. But, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, species are going extinct at up to 1,000 times that rate. Dozens go extinct every day. You may be familiar with some of the causes: pollution, hunting, and overharvesting, just to name a few. However, the introduction of invasive species to different places is another major, but less-known cause. In fact, according to the National Wildlife Federation, “42% of threatened or endangered species are at risk due to invasive species.” In the next 5 minutes or so, I will discuss the causes and effects of the introduction of invasive species, then explain what we can do about it, all with a focus on plants in our region of North America.

Let’s backtrack for a second. What exactly is an invasive species? The U.S. Department of Agriculture defines it as “an alien species whose introduction does or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.” The North American Invasive Species Network elaborates upon that definition, saying that the term is reserved for “the most aggressive species,” which “grow and reproduce rapidly, causing major disturbances to the areas in which they are present.” I would like to clarify that these “major disturbances” are commonly overlooked by the untrained eye. Most of the plants we see around us aren’t native to Kentucky, or even North America. They were largely introduced by European explorers, merchants, and immigrants, often unintentionally. They escape into the wild from controlled environments such as gardens and they hitch rides on cargo, people, and other species moving around. But a plant simply being in a new place does not make it intrinsically invasive. Allyson Muth at the PennState College of Agricultural Sciences outlines the main mechanisms by which non-native plants become invasive, of which predation is the greatest. All the living things in an ecosystem evolve together for millennia, then a new species is introduced. Muth says “We import plants, not the associated … biocontrol mechanisms. In the absence of the plant’s native control, these plants have the ability to thrive.”

Let’s take a look at a specific example. Lonicera canadensis, commonly known as American Honeysuckle, comes as both a shrub and a vine. It thrives in humusy, well-drained soil, and shade. I have a vine of it in my backyard - the plant is referred to as “hummingbird honeysuckle” because you can see so many native hummingbirds feeding from it. In fact, when I Googled “native hummingbirds of Kentucky” and went to the images, about half of the images were of the tiny birds drinking from the flowers of the honeysuckle. According to Dr. Thomas Barnes of the UK Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, hummingbird honeysuckle vine comes into flower just as ruby-throated hummingbird babies fly out of the nest and are looking to build themselves up for their trek to the tropics come fall. He says it is the best plant ever because it “produces as much as 10x more nectar than any other hummingbird plant.” But almost any other kind of honeysuckle is invasive and damaging the ecosystem. Lonicera morrowii and Lonicera japonica are two species of honeysuckle that are native to East Asia and were brought to the U.S. L. morrowii spreads through open woodlands and develops into a thickety undergrowth which impedes the growth of native plants and the establishment of tree seedlings. L. japonica is an aggressive vine that also spreads through the undergrowth, cutting off smaller plants, but it goes a step further and climbs trees for many meters, disrupting the natural succession by smothering native vegetation and trees and preventing seedling regeneration. Both of these species are pests; some states have even made their sale illegal because of how destructive their effects are. They impair the growth of plants that are essential to animals’ diets, and their berries aren’t replacements for them either. Invasive honeysuckle is just one example of thousands of species that are damaging our ecosystem

So what can we do about these horrible invaders? The city of Lexington is pretty good with regards to plants and animals. I’m sure you’ve seen the long stretches of lush greenery lining Man O’War. Almost all of that is invasive honeysuckle. But just this past summer, Lexington landscaping crews spent weeks cutting down these massive bushes and vines that were choking all the natural foliage along the road. I have to say that the size of some of the trunks that are still sticking out of the ground is remarkable. It was a big job, and it isn’t finished; we have quite a few more roads than Man O’War in the city. I didn’t discuss winter creeper, but it is similar in its tactics to L. japonica. Here you can see it hanging off the trees on the expansive grounds of my church, and here are my parents and I cutting and pulling down the trunks of the huge vines so the trees can breathe and grow as they please, unhindered by aggressive vines. My mum especially has dedicated hundreds of hours to the removal of winter creeper from the trees in the greenspace near my house, and this is how much biomass came off of a single tree that she worked on one morning.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, removing tonnes of biomass from greenspaces in multi-day projects for 7 people. We just have to keep up with it, and not ignore the plants until they are enormous. It’s quick and easy to pull down a few sprigs of winter creeper climbing a tree while you’re walking by if they’re still small and young. My mum sees a bit of honeysuckle, and she yanks it out of the ground in less than a minute, no matter where she is. I know of multiple gatherings just in Lexington alone where people come to exchange native plants seeds and seedlings for free. Natives are easy to grow - they’ve evolved in this ecosystem for millennia. You just press the seeds into the ground and water them for a few weeks, and you’ve got a little garden of native plants. They’re beautiful and will come back every year, the birds and insects are happier because of it, and you’re actively contributing to slowing and even reversing the 6th extinction. Buying metal straws and riding a bike and recycling are all great, but they still contribute to our consumerist society. Doing your part and pushing back against invasive plants and the threats they cause to our natural world isn’t simply attempting to slow the 6th extinction. It actively starts to reverse it.

Bibliography

Barnes, Thomas. “The Hummingbirds Are Back at the Feeder!” Kentucky Native

Plant and Wildlife, 15 July 2013,

https://kentuckynativeplantandwildlife.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-hummingbirds-are-back-at-feeder.html.

Center for Biological Diversity. "Extinction Crisis."

www.biologicaldiversity.org/programs/biodiversity/elements_of_biodiversity/extinction_crisis/index.html.

“General Invasive Species Information.” North American Invasive Species Network,

https://www.naisn.org/information/.

“Invasive Species.” National Wildlife Federation,

https://www.nwf.org/Educational-Resources/Wildlife-Guide/Threats-to-Wildlife/Invasive-Species.

“Lonicera Japonica (Japanese Honeysuckle).” Invasive Species Compendium, Center

for Agriculture and Bioscience International,