Happy February, Gardeners!
I am not sure why I decided that my birthday month was the month to talk about invasive plants, but here we are. It might have to do with the excitement around new seeds coming into the library and the recurring conversation I have around certain flowers being invasive or not.
Grass Isn’t Greener by Danae Wolfe makes a case for eliminating invasives. “Not all non-native plants are bad. In fact, many non-native plants coexist peacefully with native species and bring beauty to the garden. But when non-native plants become invasive, that’s when things go awry.”
“Invasive plants are non-native species that are introduced to a new environment and have the ability to rapidly reproduce and spread. These plants have a knack for outcompeting native species for resources like sunlight, water, and nutrients, and they also exhibit aggressive growth habits and fast growth rates, and often have efficient reproductive strategies. With few natural predators to keep them in check and the ability to tolerate a wide range of environmental conditions, they can rapidly colonize new areas and quickly dominate local ecosystems.”
One of the most frequent flowers that gets mentioned are foxgloves (Digitalis pupurea). We associate foxgloves with our area so much that I think they are even featured on the city’s new electric bus! They are beautiful, but there is a case to be made that they are invasive.
Oregon and Washington do not have them on the official list because to make it onto a state-wide invasive list, the plant often has to have a major impact on our agriculture industry, not our wild and native spaces. However, our neighbors, California and British Columbia both agree that it is invasive, with local plant organizations, like the Native Plant Society of Oregon, pushing for this classification.
If this is a flower that you adore, you are not alone, and I do have some words of hope: There are many hybrid varieties available in seed form, and the beauty in their hybrid form is that the seeds are sterile. You will not have to worry about them seeding out of control and taking over in native spaces and you still get to enjoy them.
Foxgloves (Digitalis pupurea) Links
Foxglove- Invasive Species Council of British Columbia
Native Plant Society of Oregon - Invasive Plant Atlas
Invasive Species List of California - Digitalis pupurea
Photo: Wiki Commons
Attribution: Robert Flogaus-Faust - Own work, CC BY 4.0
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Penstemon
If you are looking for a similar flower that would be a better option, check out the penstemon flowers. This picture I took at a local nursery as I was watching a bee go in and out of each flower. Click on the image to see her booty and little legs hanging out of a flower.
OregonFlora - Penstemon
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