Niagara’s Most Unwanted #4: Japanese Stiltgrass Japanese Stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum) is regulated as a pest in Canada and a newcomer to our country as an invasive species. Native to southeastern Asia, it arrived in North America in the 1900s when used as packing material. Since then, Japanese Stiltgrass has proliferated across large swaths of the United…

Look up! Some of our native vines wind their way far up into the trees – wild grape, Virginia creeper, and poison ivy cohabiting peacefully with the trees.   Unfortunately, other vines, including oriental bittersweet and honeysuckle, which are interlopers, wreak havoc in the upper reaches of the forest canopy. In the Niagara region, the honeysuckle…

Update from the NBTC Biodiversity Committee: DID YOU KNOW?  Dog-strangling vine is an invasive perennial herbaceous plant in the milkweed family (Asclepiadaceae). It is spreading rapidly and causing damage to ecosystems in southern Ontario. Dog-strangling vine invasions can harm biodiversity in a number of ways. It forms dense stands that overwhelm and crowd out native…

The day is fine, or not, and as we trudge toward our destination the woods and fields provide a welcome backdrop.  Yet how aware are we of what plant matter is in the natural areas that we pass.   Many of us are becoming more adept at recognizing massive stands of vegetative interlopers along the side…