Maine to hire invasive plant specialist

Invasive plants remain an issue in the gardening world, and they were a common topic among programs at the annual trade show of the Maine Landscape & Nursery Association last month in Augusta.

Maine State Horticulturist Ann Gibbs reported that the state is about to hire a specialist in invasive plants. The position will be part of the Maine Natural Areas Program in the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Conservation.

Maine now has a law banning the transportation of specific aquatic invasive plants, but it does not have a list of invasive land plants nor laws preventing their sale. Several other New England states do have such a list, and the University of Maine Cooperative Extension has a list of potentially invasive plants. Maine nurseries have stopped selling most of them,

The list includes Oriental bittersweet, Japanese barberry, Japanese knotweed, autumn olive, Oriental honeysuckle, burning bush, Norway maple and others.

Creation of a list of invasive plants probably will include debate on whether cultivars of some of these invasive species – which may or may not be invasive themselves – should be included on the list. It will be interesting to watch the process – and the result.

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