National Invasive Species Awareness Week: Time to learn invasive plants!
We hear a lot today about invasive species and how they’re bad for ecosystems. As our colleague Katie Standard wrote in Monday’s “Invasive Awareness” post, invasive plants are really good at what they do, whether it’s producing huge quantities of seed; thriving in poor or disturbed sites and soils; or hitching rides on birds, animals, and unwitting humans to spread themselves even farther afield.
If you want to learn more about how to identify some of the noxious species that threaten Michigan and the Midwest, check out these learning modules from the Midwest Invasive Species Information Network. The easy-to-follow modules cover plants, fish, insects, and more.
Pictured above: Common buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica); photo by Picasa; Canada thistle (Cirsium arvense); photo by Joshua Mayer; amur honeysuckle (Lonicera maacki); purple loosestrife (Lythrum salicaria).
