Conservation Commission

Invasive Plants

Purple Loosestrife

Invasive plants are non-native species that can and have spread into our ecosystems. They cause environmental or economic harm by becoming dominant and disruptive to the native ecosystem. Many invasive plants were originally introduced as desirable ornamental plant. Without natural preditors, they then survived to well, while overpowering native species.

Invasive plants should be avoided and removed.

One of the most common invasive plants in our area, as seen here, is purple loosestrife which often grows in wet or swampy areas. The New Hampshire Department of Agricuture, Markets, and Food Invasive Species Committee provides lots of information about New Hampshire invasive species. Common invasive plants in New Hampshire include the following. Click on the names below for more information about these invasive plants that can be found in southern New Hampshire.

Japanese barbary	Oriental bittersweet
Common buckthorn	Glossy buckthorn
Burning bush	Tartarian honeysuckle
Japanese Honeysuckle	Japanese stilt grass
Spotted knapweed	Japanese knotweed
Purple loosestrife	Norway maple
Mile-a-minute weed	Eurasian milfoil
Garlic mustard	Autumn olive
Russian oliver	Common reed
Multiflora rose	Black swallow-wort
Tree-of-heaven

For more information about both native and invasive species of plants, check these sites:

• The Invasive Plant Atlas of New England at the University of Connecticut.
• The National Invasive Species Information System
• Ecology and Management of Invasive Plants Program at Cornell/a>
• The New England Wildflower Society