Happy New Year from the Invasive Warrior Team!

January 8, 2024

New Year, new target:

Chinese Privet

Our Workday will be

Saturday 01/20 from 9-11:30.

We will meet at the Club at 9 am, for an introduction to our Invasive Warrior group’s mission and strategy for managing invasives in our area, and to provide information about Chinese Privet.

Please join us!

Please wear boots, and protective gloves and eye wear. Loppers, small hand saws, and small hatchets are excellent tools for this project.

Chinese Privet is a large multi-trunked shrub that can grow to 30 feet tall, but typically ranges from 10 to 15 feet in height. It spreads by root suckers and seeds, developing dense thickets which crowd out natural shrub and understory species, and can destroy wildlife habitat as the shrubs create an impenetrable wall. Chinese Privet has leaves that are evergreen to semi-evergreen and thrives with lots of sunshine and moisture. The USDA calls it one of the worst invasives in the South.

Chinese Privet blooms in late spring and produces tiny white blooms (see below). Flowers are small, white, 4-petaled, and obnoxiously sweet-smelling. They grow in clusters at the end of branches off 4-6-inch-long panicles (stems of flowers). The blue-black berries of the Chinese privet grow up to 1/4 inches in diameter and ripen in the fall. There are Privet look-alikes, such as Border Privet, but all privets are invasive.

And if you identify any Chinese Pivet near you, please let Liza Moorman (434-465-0614) know and we will make a management plan. Thanks.