- \n
- Chinese Privet<\/span> (Ligustrum japonica) has displaced the native shrub layer in 2.4 million acres of land in 5 southern states.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Purple Loosestrife<\/span> (Lythrum salicaria and L. virgatum) was introduced as a garden plant to the U.S. in the 1800s.\u00a0 Its spread is now reaching Mississippi.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Water Hyacinth<\/span> (Eichornia crassipes) was imported in 1884 as an aquatic ornamental.\u00a0It is now considered \u201cthe world\u2019s worst water weed\u201d and one of the fastest growing plants known.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Chinese Tallow Tree<\/span> (Triadica sebifera) its colorful fall foliage and rapid growth make it a popular ornamental tree. It reproduces and spreads quickly and is difficult to control due to its long taproot.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Cogon Grass<\/span> (Imperata cylindrical) imported in the 1900s; it has been promoted as a forage plant as well as an ornamental.\u00a0It is known as \u201cthe seventh worst weed in the world.\u201d It is a serious fire hazard because it burns hotter and more frequently.\u00a0It is still being sold in nurseries as \u201cJapanese Bloodgrass\u201d and \u201cRed Baron Bloodgrass.\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Tropical Soda Apple<\/span> (Solanum viarum) discovered as an invasive in 1988, this plant often infests pastures and crowds out natives and forage plants for livestock.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Alligator weed<\/span> (Alternanthera philoxeroides) is an aquatic and terrestrial plant that clogs waterways and has no food value to wildlife<\/li>\n\n\n\n
- Kudzu<\/span> (Pueraria lobata) enough said!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n
What actions can we take to help prevent the spread of invasive plants?\u00a0The first steps are to become familiar with the invasive plants that threaten our region, refrain from planting invaders and remove and destroy known invasive plants on our property.\u00a0We can also help by educating our families, neighbors, and friends about this plight.\u00a0A good source for information on this subject is the National Invasive Species Information Center at www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov\/<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/AdobeStock_Kudzu.jpeg?resize=640%2C424\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/TheLocalVoiceLigature-25web.jpg?resize=25%2C16\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"by Jo Ann Allen, Lafayette County Master Gardener In my conversations with other Southern gardeners I have never<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":238,"featured_media":149332,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27287],"tags":[31893],"class_list":["post-149330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gardening","tag-jo-ann-allen"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/purple-loosetrife.jpg?fit=612%2C408&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/238"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149334,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149330\/revisions\/149334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thelocalvoice.net\/oxford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- Purple Loosestrife<\/span> (Lythrum salicaria and L. virgatum) was introduced as a garden plant to the U.S. in the 1800s.\u00a0 Its spread is now reaching Mississippi.<\/li>\n\n\n\n