Give A Shit About Nature@giveashitnature
Researchers in Georgia removed one invasive shrub from a patch of riparian forest and watched native bees swarm back. Bee species variation nearly tripled.
The shrub was Chinese privet. And if you live in the south, there's a good chance it's in your yard or on your fence line right now.
Ligustrum sinense was imported from Asia in 1825 as an ornamental hedge plant. By the mid-1900s it had escaped cultivation and started moving through forest understories, streambanks, roadsides, and fence lines across the South. It now occupies over a million hectares across 12 states from Virginia to Texas.
The USDA Forest Service study was straightforward: two adjacent plots of similar riparian forest in Georgia's Piedmont, one cleared of privet by mulching machine and subsequent herbicide treatment, one left as a heavily invaded control.
Native bee abundance and species richness were monitored for five years after removal. The results were consistent every year: cleared plots had dramatically more bees in more species than invaded plots, and both metrics converged toward what researchers measured in uninvaded reference forests.
The mechanism isn't complicated. Privet forms dense thickets that shade out the native understory plants that native bees depend on for pollen and nesting habitat. It doesn't feed native insects the way native shrubs do. A forest floor under heavy privet cover supports almost nothing.
Here's how to recognize it: semi-evergreen shrub, six to thirteen feet tall, small oval leaves with a slightly pointed tip arranged in opposite pairs on the stem. White flower clusters in spring with a strong unpleasant smell.
Small dark purple berries in fall, toxic to humans, spread readily by birds, which is how it moves into new areas. It leafs out earlier than native shrubs in spring and holds its leaves later in fall, making it easy to spot in a dormant winter understory.
Small seedlings pull by hand very easily after rain. Larger shrubs need to be cut at the base with the stump treated immediately with triclopyr before the plant seals itself off. Don't let it go to fruit. The birds are its dispersal mechanism and they're very efficient at the job.
Replace it with native understory shrubs: spicebush, native viburnums, beautyberry, or sweetshrub. Plants that actually feed the native food web.
