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Re: the exotic plants killer strikes again...
Thanks for all the info Josh. I also try to avoid plant sources that
sell this kind of biological junk. Perhaps a copy of this message could
be taken to the above to the nursury so show them how much damage they
do when they sell dangerous plants like this.
Tim Lewis
Weaverville, NC
tlewis@buncombe.main.nc.us
>
> Hi Carolinabirders,
>
> First, there's no evidence that planting things does either wintering
> hummingbirds or us any good. My Rufous Hummingbird last winter showed
up
> in a neighborhood that was apparently devoid of flowers. This winter,
> with a big patch of Pineapple Sage blooming like gangbusters through
late
> December, I've had nothing. Lori Turner's Green-breasted Mango was
> frequenting a yard with very little vegetation beyond a manicured
lawn.
> Monte Tickle's Broad-tailed seemed to feed mainly on insects. Paulette
> Biles already has multiple hummingbirds without having planted
anything
> yet. I'm beginning to suspect that it was just coincidence that Judy
> Walker's Anna's showed up the same year she planted Pineapple Sage.
Even
> the feeders seem to do more good for us, by bringing the hummers to
> predictable and visible places, than they do for the birds, which seem
> capable of surviving the winter on bugs and other natural food
sources.
>
> Second, Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), also known as
Sweet
> Breath of Spring and January Jasmine, is listed by the Southeast
Exotic
> Pest Plant Council as a Category 1 Species, meaning that it is
persistent
> and invasive throughout the southeastern US, and it has been shown to
> spread into native communities and displace native species. It also
means
> that the more we plant these things in our yards, the more time and
money
> our government and private groups like The Nature Conservancy will
have
> to spend eliminating them from wildlife refuges and nature preserves,
and
> so the more we will have to pay in taxes and membership dues for this
> purpose. That's on top of the money that we spent buying the plants to
> start with, that would have been better spent on something native.
>
> Want a second opinion? Winter Honeysuckle is also listed as an
invasive
> exotic plant to avoid by the North Carolina Botanical Garden, as an
> invasive alien plant species by the Virginia state Department of
> Conservation and Recreation, as "Weedy" by the Virginia Cooperative
> Extension, as an exotic pest plant by the Missouri Botanical Garden,
as
> an invasive species by the Georgia Wildlife Federation, as an invasive
> exotic species by the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural
and
> Environmental Sciences, as an invasive plant by the National Botanical
> Services of Canada, and was listed on a "weed alert" as a species that
> was spreading rapidly from the National Herbarium of New South Wales.
>
> Some other plants which may attract hummingbirds to feed, but which
are
> invasive exotic weeds that crowd out native plants and destroy the
> habitat for native animals, include Mimosa trees, Lantana bushes (they
> don't seem to be much of a problem this far north, but are bad in
Florida
> and catastrophic in Hawai'i), and Red Morning Glory vines (Ipomoea
> coccinea). And some additional plants that may attract a few common
> suburban birds to your yard (Cedar Waxwings, Brown Thrashers, etc) and
so
> are pushed by nurseries as bird attractors, but which are very bad
news
> for many declining breeding species (Wood Thrush, Swainson's Warbler,
> etc), include Oregon Grape (Mahonia sp.), Autumn- and Russian-Olive
> (Elaeagnus sp.), Privet (Ligustrum sp.), Japanese Honeysuckle
(Lonicera
> japonica), English Ivy (Hedera helix), and assorted others. Don't buy
any
> of these for your yards, and if you have them already (as I do), you
> should do what you can to eliminate them.
>
> If you are considering buying a plant, and want to know whether or not
it
> is invasive, the North Carolina Botanical Garden's list of plants to
> avoid is on-line at
> http://www.unc.edu/depts/ncbg/exotic.htm
> Or, you can use any search engine (I like Google) and type the plant's
> scientific name followed by a word such as "exotic" or "invasive". If
the
> plant is a problem one, you'll receive numerous results from the
websites
> of various botanical gardens, government agencies, and native plant
> societies.
>
> And if you must have a plant to attract winter hummingbirds, try
> Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans). It isn't native to NC, but is at
least
> native to this continent, I think; and it can't quite survive our few
> winter freezes here in NC, so it can't become invasive until Global
> Warming changes our climate a bit. You can grow it in a large pot that
> you can carry inside on cold winter nights, and by doing so probably
> maintain it flowering through the entire winter. Even planted outside
in
> the dirt, ours flowered lushly until late December, and a few flowers
> lingered into January.
>
> Good birding,
>
> Josh
>
>
> Joshua S. Rose
> Duke University
> Department of Biology (Zoology, R.I.P.)
>
> jsr6@duke.edu
> http://www.duke.edu/~jsr6/
>
>
>