Common Garden Invaders (and Native Plants to Use Instead!)
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Some of our favorite garden flowers are actually damaging Florida's natural areas. Here's what to plant instead!
Florida is a wonderful place to be a gardener- we get plenty of rain, it almost never freezes here, and our tropical plants are the envy of the continental United States. A drive around Hillsborough County feels like a luxury garden tour; trellises overflow with flowering vines, walkways are edged with colorful blooms, and even the hedges are showy and attractive.
Sadly, while they may be appealing, many of our favorite tropical garden plants have escaped into natural areas and become invasive, damaging plant communities and threatening rare species and habitats.
The plants listed below are extremely popular in Florida gardens because they're beautiful, hardy, and easy to grow. Unfortunately, they grow so well because they're all non-native invasive plants with no natural enemies. In fact, these beauties are all on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council (FLEPPC)'s Category 1 invasive plant list; each of these plant species has damaged or altered native ecosystems by out-competing native plants, changing the fire behavior or water flow of an area, or even hybridizing with native plant species.
Luckily for Florida's gardeners, there are so many beautiful native flowering plants that we can use instead! For each invasive plant on this list, we've included a few similar native plants that you can be proud to have in your garden.
As you read, think about where you've seen these invasive plants before. If you have them in your garden, please consider removing them and planting one of our gorgeous native alternatives! The pollinators, herbivores, and natural communities of Florida will thank you.
Invader #1: Common Lantana
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| Common lantana, Lantana camara (Rl / CC BY-SA) |
Lantana is a fast-growing, bushy shrub with bright, two-toned flower clusters and sage-smelling leaves. The most common variety seen in Florida gardens has yellow, orange, and pink flowers, but many other colors have been selectively bred over the years. Lantana is commonly used in landscaping and gardening in warmer areas of the United States. It’s extremely well adapted to tropical climates, attracts bees and butterflies, and does well in Florida without needing much help from gardeners, making it a popular low-maintenance landscaping choice.
However beautiful it may be, lantana can be extremely destructive when it escapes into natural areas. It colonizes disturbed spots and sunny clearings and forms dense, tall thickets where no other plants can grow. It’s quickly spread by birds and other animals, who love to eat its fruit. This plant can be difficult to remove because of its thick woody stem, but cutting it down to the ground and re-cutting any new growth each month should do the trick.
Here are some tall, flowering, pollinator-attracting shrubs that you can replace lantana with in your garden:
Firebush
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| Firebush, Hamelia patens (Primejyothi / CC BY-SA) |
Buttonsage
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| Buttonsage, Lantana involucrata (Patrice78500 / CC BY-SA) |
Porterweed
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| Blue porterweed, Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (Mokkie / CC BY-SA) |
Invader #2: Mexican Petunia
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| Mexican petunia (Vengolis / CC BY-SA) |
Mexican petunia is a dense-growing, tall-stemmed plant with showy purple flowers. You’ve probably seen it edging many shady walkways, growing as a grass replacement in someone's front yard, or filling planters outside of your favorite shopping plaza. Mexican petunia is a popular garden plant all over Florida due to its ability to thrive just about anywhere. It'll grow well in areas too wet or too dry, too sunny or too shady for other garden favorites.
Its hardiness has made this plant extremely problematic in Florida’s natural areas- it's become invasive in almost all types of habitat because it can withstand such a wide range of conditions. Mexican petunia is a prolific seed producer and can also grow from rhizomes and re-sprout from roots after its stem is killed. To remove this plant, try to get all of the root system out of the ground and be prepared to come back and re-pull new growth that sprouts from the remaining roots.
Here are some showy, flowering, pollinator-attracting herbaceous plants that you can replace Mexican petunia with in your garden:
Butterflyweed (aka native milkweed)
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| Butterflyweed, Asclepias tuberosa (Aaron Carlson from Menomonie, WI, USA / CC BY-SA) |
Tropical Sage
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| Tropical sage, Salvia coccinea (Vaikoovery/ CC BY) Blanket Flower |
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| Blanket flower, Gaillardia pulchella Forked Bluecurls |
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| Forked bluecurls, Trichostema dichotomum (Bob Peterson from North Palm Beach / CC BY-SA) |
Invader #3: Coral ardisia
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| Coral ardisia (Dick Culbert from Gibsons, B.C., Canada / CC BY ) |
Coral ardisia is used all over the U.S. as a bold and showy landscaping plant. Its large, glossy leaves and bright red berries make it sought-after in the gardening trade. Unfortunately, those same berries help this plant spread into natural areas at an alarming rate. Coral ardisia is extremely prolific, producing hundreds of berries a year, and seeds have an 85% to 98% germination rate. Raccoons and birds help to spread the seeds miles away from the parent plant.
Coral ardisia has been a huge problem in oak hammocks, creek corridors, and other shaded environments around Florida; it grows quickly and creates lots of seedlings, shading out low-growing native plants and taking resources from native plant seedlings. Removal is difficult- you have to pull this plant multiple years in a row to get all of the seedlings.
Here are some attractive, bushy shrubs with colorful berries or flowers that you can replace coral ardisia with in your garden:
Wild Coffee
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| Wild coffee, Psychotria nervosa (Katja Schulz/ CC BY-SA) |
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| Beautyberry, Callicarpa americana (Derek Ramsey/ CC BY-SA) |
Coral Bean
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| Coral bean, Erythrina herbacea (Geoff Gallice from Gainesville, FL, USA / CC BY) |
Invader #4: Japanese Honeysuckle
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| Japanese honeysuckle (Mokkie / CC BY-SA) |
Japanese honeysuckle was first introduced to Florida for use in gardening and is prized for its sweet-smelling, attractive flowers and its quick growth. Unfortunately, when it gets out of your garden, this vine can become a serious problem in natural areas. It easily invades disturbed places like roadsides, tilled pastures and abandoned mining land. The vine can quickly grow over and smother small trees and shrubs, shading out other groundcover plants.
Birds love to eat the seeds, so this plant spreads very quickly and can pop up miles away from the garden where it began. It can also spread through underground rhizomes, so your neighbors might find it growing up underneath fences and walls. Japanese honeysuckle can be difficult to remove - you have to dig out the whole root system or the vine will sprout again, and plant material cut and left on the ground can quickly grow new roots.
Here are some gorgeous native vines with showy flowers that you can replace Japanese honeysuckle with in your garden:
Carolina Jessamine
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| Carolina jessamine, Gelsemium sempervirens (Homer Edward Price / CC BY) Trumpet Vine |
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| Trmupet vine, Campsis radicans (Fritzflohrreynolds / CC BY-SA) Moonflower |
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| Moonflower, Ipomoea alba Coral Honeysuckle |
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| Coral honeysuckle, Lonicera sempervirens |
For more information about Florida's invasive plants, please visit the IFAS Center for Invasive and Aquatic Plants website. Information about gardening and landscaping with native Florida plants can be found on the Florida Native Plant Society website and the IFAS Gardening Solutions website.
