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When choosing exotic plants for your home, please first do your homework. Some exotics are beneficial. But others can be invasive, crowding out native flora.

Florida is a case in point. Citizens often gather for events called "invasive removal days" where they search and destroy invasive species such as Brazilian pepper trees. The trees may look great and provide shade near beaches, but they are disasters for the environment. When removing a Brazilian pepper, you can plant yaupon holly in its place.

Did you know that great replacements exist for invasive exotics? For instance, here are a few examples (with the invasive tree, vine, fern or grass listed first, its desirable replacement listed second):

Lead tree/pignut hickory
Chinese tallow/red maple
Carrotwood/East Palatka holly
Camphor tree/red cedar
China berry/sweetgum
Air potato/Carolina Jessamine
Cogon grass/gamma grass or muhly grass
Skunk vine and old world climbing fern/coral honeysuckle

Some 1.5 million acres of Florida land is infested with invasive trees, shrubs and vines. That's an amazing number of acres covered with plants that can drive out native species and degrade wildlife habitat. Even if the exotic species is confined to your yard, birds and the wind can spread the seeds. So can the family pet!

Government groups such as the various Invasive Species Task Forces and Florida's River Basin Boards all have a role to play. But you can do your part as well, every time you make a choice about what to bring into your home or plant in your yard.

Sometimes people become emotional at the thought of digging up, burning out or bulldozing a tree. They have a hard time understanding how quickly an invasive exotic can denude a landscape. As University of Florida scientists involved in the Chinese tallow removal program reported somewhat amusingly in the Journal of Arboriculture:

"Convincing the public that not all trees are environmentally beneficial and enlisting public participation in the campaign were major challenges. Assistance came in the unexpected form of several vitriolic letters to the editor of the local newspaper in which the sponsors of the program were condemned for believing that they had the right to determine the fate of a tree, even an invasive exotic. The published exchange of letters was beneficial insofar as it kept the issue of exotics prominently in the public eye."

Learn more about this author, Andrea Brunais.
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