What are INvasive Species?
Native Plants
Native plants are those species that evolved naturally in a region without human intervention.
Non-Native Plants
Non-natives are plants that have been introduced, on purpose or by accident, to the region but are native to another location.
Invasive plants
Invasive plants are non-native plants that escape cultivation and cause environmental or economic harm or harm human health.
Why should we control Invasive plants?
To be considered invasive, a species must be:
Non-native to the area (usually introduced by humans)
Able to spread or reproduce rapidly
Harmful to the environment, humans, or society
Non-Native invasive plants:
Do not support local insect populations
Because most insects are typically hyper-specialists regarding what they will eat, they essentially starve in locations with heavy invasive infestation. These insects are critical to the native food web. For example, the Carolina Chickadee consumes up to 9,000 caterpillars to raise a clutch of fledglings.
Have few if any natural enemies to control them
Plants invasive to our region have few natural predators or diseases that would keep them in check in their indigenous region, further increasing the pressure on the diminished quantity of our native plants.
Crowd out and overtake native plants
Invasive plants often grow very fast in comparison to our native plants. This results in high density invasive cover which leads to suppression of new native saplings and herbaceous plants.
Are a poor food source for Birds
Invasive plants from the Far East have high sugar content berries vs most plants native to our region which have a high fat content – think bird junk food! Additionally, some invasive plants such as Nandina are quite toxic and contain Cyanide in the berries, leaves and stalks which have led to bird kills.
How Can you get involved?
Volunteer with us!
Keep Durham Beautiful performs monthly events for invasive control rotating through the city parks. These events are lead by Keep Durham Beautiful IPC leaders and leaders from New Hope Bird Alliance as well as Rewild NC.
Volunteers will be instructed on invasive removal and tools/gloves are supplied. See events page to sign up and help restore our parks to a more natural ecology.
2025 Invasive Plant removal recap:
2 Invasive plant removal events per month
2 hour events
Wide geographical distribution
Friday PM & Saturday AM Events
407 Volunteers
814 Hours
36.8 Acres cleared
NC-IPC leader development program
The North Carolina Invasive Plant Council (NC-IPC) in conjunction with Keep Durham Beautiful has held training classes to develop future invasive control event leaders. The training focuses on tools of the trade, safety, invasive species identification, removal techniques, and post-removal site state
Check back for the next training date
Learn more!
Check out other resources available from our partners and other organizations:
Buy and plant native species!
Local Native Plant Nurseries:
Learn more
Check out the Fourth Edition of Controlling Invasive Plants from the NC Botanical Garden to learn more about what invasive plants are, why we should control them, and different treatment methods.
How well can you identify invasive plants?
Learn to identify and get descriptions of invasive Plants:
Hover over the images below to test your NC invasive plant knowledge.
All of the plants below are invasive and considered a “severe threat.” You can explore the North Carolina Native Plant Society’s list with threat rankings here.