Chinese yam air potatoes. Photo provided
Chinese yam air potatoes. Photo provided
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On the web
Websites and smartphone apps help people identify, report and learn how to treat invasive plants, as well as select native species for landscaping. Visit www.mipn.org and www.misin.msu.edu.
One is powerful enough to choke the life out of a tree — and maybe a forest.

Another could potentially run riot over the landscape.

A third tricks imperiled butterflies into letting their offspring die.

This fall, people in southwest Michigan are being advised to be on the lookout for a trio of invasive vines.

“It’s easier to identify all three this time of year,” said Kimberly Barton, invasive species outreach educator with the Cass County Conservation District.

She’s talking about Oriental bittersweet, Chinese yam and swallow-wort (both the black and pale varieties), three vines less than welcome in Michigan, or in Indiana.

Each produces a distinctive fruit or seed pod this time of year: red berries popping from orange husks on the Oriental bittersweet; small “air potatoes” on the Chinese yam; and milkweed-like pods on the swallow-wort.

Barton’s job is to help people identify and then develop plans to manage or eradicate non-native species that have the potential to invade and disrupt the environment if left unchecked.

Oriental bittersweet, for instance, spreads swiftly and squeezes out other vegetation. It’s often found on the edge of a forest, where it coils around trees “like a boa constrictor,” over time destroying woodland, said James Potthoff, a forester with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
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