By Hillary Sterett | Education Intern
Our new John and Carol Walter Discovery Wing in the Dalton Discovery Center is tackling the topic of local invasive species. We know that animals such as the lionfish, Burmese python and cane toad move on their own and become invasive, but what about plants?
The spread of invasive plants in Southwest Florida is a major problem impacting the biodiversity of our natural ecosystems. It is important to learn what these plants are, how they impact the world around us and what we can do to stop them.
Let’s start with the basics. It is crucial to define and know the differences between native, exotic, and invasive species.
Native
A native species is one that originated and developed in its surrounding habitat and has adapted to living in that environment. For example, a common native plant in Florida is the bald cypress tree.
Exotic
On the contrary, an exotic or non-native plant is one that is introduced to an area where it does not occur naturally, but does not cause harm to the ecosystem. This is not to be confused with invasive plants.
Invasive
Invasive plants are plants that are introduced into an environment and can cause extreme ecological, environmental, or economic damage once they establish a population. They can also contribute to the decrease in native biological plant diversity in an area by outcompeting native species.
Our new discovery wing dives into this topic and focuses on key invasive plants that are very prevalent in our ecosystems and when they were introduced.
Australian Pine
One such plant is the Australian pine, which was introduced in 1887. It was brought to Florida and planted to form windbreaks around canals, agricultural fields, roads, and houses.
Its widespread and aggressive growth rate tendencies are attributed to its resistance to salt spray. This means it can grow close to sea water, and therefore invades beaches, hammock, and tree island communities within the Everglades. This has allowed the invasion of the Australian pine to take place in thousands of acres of coastal areas in Florida.
The Australian pine outcompetes native vegetation by producing a dense leaf litter that blocks sunlight out for other plants.
It also provides little to no native wildlife habitat and can displace native beach plant communities that provide habitat for threatened wildlife. Even with birds that often use trees for nesting, the Australian pine nests fewer bird species and produces little to none diet compared to native trees.
Lastly, the most dangerous part about this plant is its shallow root system. The roots are easy to extract from the ground, which can cause the trees to fall during storms. These uprooted trees destabilize the soil and alter the environment.
They also impact the coastal nesting habits of endangered American crocodiles and sea turtles by making beaches and nesting areas hard to access due to the fallen trees and beach erosion.
As we can see, the Australian pine not only negatively alters the plant environment, but also negatively impacts native animals.
Water Hyacinth
Another problematic invasive species is the water hyacinth, which appeared in the late 1800s. It was introduced into Florida as an ornamental plant, and covered more than 120,000 acres of public lakes and rivers by the early 1960’s. It is known to be one of the fastest growing plant species ever!
Water hyacinth can double in population size in about two weeks due to its quick reproduction and plant development. This fast growth rate leads to dense mat formation that clogs waterways and limits flood control and wildlife use.
The dense canopy at the surface of the water negatively impacts ecosystems by not allowing sunlight to penetrate native submersed plant species and altering the historic water flow. The mat formation also limits boat traffic and recreational activities and can be economically damaging to operations that count on the water for transportation and business as a way of life.
Old World Climbing Fern
A third invasive plant highlighted in our new Discovery Wing is the Old World climbing fern.
This plant was introduced in 1958 and was imported and used as an outdoor ornamental plant. Starting as a decoration, it made its way into the wild through infestation of residential landscapes, horticultural nurseries, rangelands, and other managed lands and has since caused problems.
The negative effects of the Old World climbing fern are experienced in many places in Southwest Florida, especially in our public conservation areas.
The Old World climbing fern has the ability to grow up and over trees and form dense horizontal canopies. This allows it to cover whole plant communities and shade them out and in turn greatly impacting native plants such as the Everglades tree island communities.
The fern also serves as a fire ladder by spreading and carrying fire into tree canopies and killing natives trees that wouldn’t usually burn. The damage caused by this invasive plant is detrimental to the biodiversity of Southwest Florida.
Our new wing also highlights several other invasive plants such as melaleuca, earleaf acacia, cogon grass, rosary pea, air potato, caesarweed, Mexican petunia, and Brazilian pepper.
These species all experience rapid growth rates and cause different problems for the areas that they invade. With all this being said, there seems to be an endless list of invasive plant species that have inhabited Southwest Florida.
What can we really do about this seemingly inevitable fate of invasive plant species?
Although it can be disheartening to learn about, there are steps that can be taken by our community to change the narrative of the story!
First and foremost, we can educate ourselves about what we are planting and growing around us! If you are a homeowner, be sure to do your research on what you are putting into your gardens and landscapes.
We can also take the extra step and learn more about identifying plants. Some of them may be pretty, but we have to be responsible and not contribute to the spread of invasive plants that are leading to a loss of our beautiful, native Florida plant species.
Come check out our invasive species exhibit in the Dalton Discovery Center and do your part in keeping Florida wildlife beautiful and natural!
Additional Resources
Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission
https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/habitat/invasive-plants/
https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/habitat/invasive-plants/weed-alerts/
University of Florida Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants