Leatherleaf Mahonia Woes

[ursulav]

So some of you may know Leatherleaf Mahonia as a nice ornamental shrub that you see in all the big box stores like Lowes and Home Depot. It's pretty, it looks kinda like a giant holly with very pretty blue berries, it's vigorous, it's tough, what's not to love?

If you live in the South, let me just beg you to back awaaaay from the plant. Please.

Comments

[astrelsa]

Most people just don't get it, even when you explain it, but you gotta try. Good luck.

[plantyhamchuk]

And it's such a pain to remove, too! UGH.

[leafing]

It's funny that this post just came up - I'm just finishing a paper for one of my classes about retailers and people who buy plants without doing research being partially responsible for the introduction of certain invasive species. It's interesting to see something exactly like what I wrote in my paper in action.

Best of luck with removing those things, and hopefully at least a few people will catch this post and think twice about buying the Mahonia.

[iheartoothecae]

Not really related, but I would totally elect that millipede in your icon King of All the Things, without knowing his stance on taxes or anything. So cute. What is he from?

[liminalia]

Apparently the USDA agrees with you.
http://www.mdinvasivesp.org/archived_invaders/archived_invaders_2010_07.html
One wonders why they don't stop the big boxes from selling invasives.

[soren_grey]

Though I'm guilty of growing wisteria, myself, I am so with you on the invasives. I was sitting at a redlight yesterday looking at a patch of woods next to my car and I counted SIX invasive, non-native plants in that brief moment. (Japanese knotweed, English ivy, kudzu, etc.)

My wisteria is potted and all seed pods (when we get that far) will be collected so it doesn't end up everywhere. I wish more people knew what they were doing when they innocently plant things they think are pretty...

[ursulav]

*grin* Have you considered our very nice native wisterias? Less time worrying about seed pods, and they look pretty darn similar...I've got a Kentucky wisteria growing up the porch because yeah, they're a gorgeous, gorgeous plant, and have less World Eating ambitions.

[soren_grey]

Wait, I'm confused, I thought all wisteria was introduced. Well, I found the seed on the ground, so it could be native?

[ursulav]

Err...possible? I wouldn't count on it, given how dramatically invasive they are, but it is remotely possible your seeds are native.

What we usually see are Chinese wisteria--that's the classic stuff eating roadsides. There is, however, a very nice American species (Wisteria frutescens) that's a bit smaller, much less invasive, and produces flowers a little later in the season. You can buy it at a lot of places under the cultivar name "Amethyst Falls" or there's some more obscure variants that you'll probably have to track down by mail-order--you usually see it under the name "Kentucky Wisteria." I've got a white one on the porch.

As for trying to determine the type, it apparently depends on things like stamen length and supposedly the Chinese stuff twines counter-clockwise while the American stuff twines clockwise, but you'd have to be a better botanist than I to figure that out.