June 8, 2024

The Invasive Warriors Warm Up For Summer Battle

The next Invasive Warrior Workday is

June 22nd from 9:00-11:30 AM

We will meet at the club for a short education session about

Tree of Heaven, Princess Trees and Autumn Olive.

Wear long sleeves, long pants, work gloves, and protective eye wear. Consider using an insect repellant for exposed skin. Bring hand pruners, and loppers if you have them.

Speaker Series:

Please also join us on

June 26 at 6:30 PM

at the Glenmore Country Club

for the first in a planned series of nature-related talks. Brian Morse, our first speaker, is a certified wildlife biologist, and co-founder of Virginia Forestry and Wildlife group. He will talk about invasive species and share his work managing invasive species across VA, and restoring native plant communities, like wildflower meadows. There will be coffee and dessert and time for questions and answers.

June’s Invasive Species Focus is: Tree of Heaven, Princess Tree and Autumn Olive

Tree of Heaven

(Alanthus altissima)

Introduced to the US from China in 1784, Tree of Heaven is listed as invasive in 30 states. It reproduces very quickly, and spreads prolifically by seeds and root sprouts, crowding out other trees, while secreting a toxin from its roots that kills other plants around it. This tree is hard to kill! A cut, injured, or apparently dead Tree of Heaven will send up hundreds of root suckers, as far away as 50 feet from the trunk. These trees are also host to the larvae of the dreaded Asian Spotted Lantern Fly, which kills many native and fruit bearing trees, and horticultural grapevines.

Close up of Tree of Heaven

(Alanthus altissima)

Princess Tree

(Paulownia tomentosa)

This tree was introduced in the 1830’s and has now become invasive. Though its flowers are beautiful, the tree spreads easily, through root suckering and seeds- a single tree can produce 20 million seeds- leading to invasive spread, allowing it to overtake a woodlands. Like the Alanthus, this tree is difficult to eradicate, and crowds out native trees like Black Walnut, Red Maple, and sumac, displacing them and, potentially, the native animals and insects that depend on native trees.

Princess Tree

(Paulownia tomentosa)

Autumn Olive (Photo 1)

Autumn Olive

Autumn olive is a deciduous shrub or small tree in the Oleaster family that can grow up to 20 feet tall (Photo 2). It is invasive and tends to like disturbed areas, fields, forest edges and open forests. It is problematic because it outcompetes native plants with dense shade and by changing the chemistry of the soil around itself. Autumn Olive will quickly take over the landscape.

In the Spring and Summer, the leaves are bright green on top and silver underneath (Photo 3). In the Fall, there are abundant red berries that are lightly speckled, and the leaves yellow (Photo 1).

Autumn Olive (Photo 2)

Autumn Olive (Photo 3)

Liza Moorman: Team Leader. Sandown Lane and Sandown Park- liza.moorman@gmail.com

Liz Burns: Scottish Homes- lburns1117@gmail.com

Cathy Martens: Piper East- steve.cathy@sbcglobal.net

Cathy Skelly: Highlands, Carroll Creek area- cathy.skelly@yahoo.com

Nancy Canavan: S section, Glenlochan pond- nancanavan@aol.com

Tom Hedstrom: S section Glenlochan pond- Red99cedar@msn.com

Diana Ferguson: Darby West- dianasfergy@gmail.com

Bob Cox: Bremerton Cottages- robertwcox855@gmail.com

Anne Poland: Piper West- lauren.poland@att.net