Creeping Death: Invasive Plants of Appalachia

Despite being rooted in the ground, plants have a variety of means to spread into new territories—including by people who bring them into farms and gardens far away from their native habitat. In some cases, plants thrive in the absence of their usual competition and begin overtaking wherever they find themselves.

Just about anyone who grew up in the South within the last century would recognize the foreboding sight of kudzu binding up and choking out the amorphous giants of dead trees underneath. Even though many of the invasive plants listed below came to Appalachia for use in gardening, people once thought kudzu would help control erosion. During the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, the Civilian Conservation Corps planted these vines all over North America without knowing the consequences it would lead to almost a hundred years later.

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Kudzu (Pueraria montana)

Vines

kudzu (Pueraria montana): native to eastern Asia

ivy (Hedera helix): native to Eurasia

wintercreeper (Euonymus fortunei): native to eastern Asia

gold-and-silver honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica): native to eastern Asia

oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus): native to eastern Asia

Italian arum (Arum italicum) and garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

Weeds

garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata): native to Eurasia and northern Africa

Italian arum (Arum italicum): native to Mediterranean Eurasia and northern Africa

mock strawberry (Potentilla indica): native to eastern and southern Asia

creeping buttercup (Ranunculus repens): native to Eurasia and northern Africa

common violet (Viola odorata): native to Eurasia

Tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima)

Trees

tree-of-heaven (Ailanthus altissima): native to eastern Asia

princess tree (Paulownia tomentosa): native to eastern Asia

Callery pear (Pyrus calleryana): native to eastern Asia

Asian knotweed (Reynoutria japonica)

Shrubs

multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora): native to eastern Asia

privet (Ligustrum species): native to Eurasia

Asian knotweed (Reynoutria japonica): native to eastern Asia

burning bush (Euonymus alatus): native to eastern Asia

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Many other plants not mentioned here also pose a threat to Appalachian forests. In addition to directly harming biodiversity, they also have the potential to spread exotic insects and diseases that cause a cascade of environmental destruction.

Indigenous people like the Cherokee and Muscogee tended the Appalachian forests long before the arrival of European settlers and others. Over the last five centuries of colonization, this region has undergone immense changes. With the loss of ancient chestnut trees came opportunities for exotic plants to spread into the broken canopies and hollowed woodlands. In addition to banning the sale and import of the species listed above, communities must come together to recuperate our relationship with nature.