Alabama Invasive Plant Council's List of Alabama's Invasive Plants

Approved ALIPC Board of Directors February 14, 2006

The Purpose and Objectives for Listing and Categorizing Invasive Plants in Alabama

The intent of this list is to:

1. Rank plants based on their invasive characteristics;
2. Foster early detection of invasive plants so that landowners, managers, and stewards can implement a rapid response action to prevent them from becoming established and spreading;
3. Educate the general public, land based and water-use resource managers, landowners, and plant growers in an effort to eliminate the use of invasive plants in landscaping, restoration, and enhancement projects.

This list has no regulatory authority but provides useful information to help guide agencies, private landowners, and water managers in making responsible decisions about plant use and management decisions. The Council acknowledges that most introduced species are harmless. However, it also realizes that many species do escape cultivation, pasturage, landscaping, and water gardens and have the potential to spread and become ecological disasters.

Criteria for Evaluating Plant Species for Invasiveness in Alabama

Category 1:

1) The plant species is non-native to Alabama.
2) The plant has the potential for rapid growth, high seed or propagule production and dissemination, and establishment in natural communities or in managed areas where it is not desired.
3) The plant persists in free living infestations (without cultivation).
4) The plant is widespread in Alabama or at least common in a region or habitat type(s) in the state.
5) It occurs in dense stands of numerous individuals in minimally managed areas or in managed areas where it is not desired.
6) It is able to out-compete other species in the plant community, thereby impacting native plant biodiversity and/or ecosystem function.

Category 2:

7) The plant meets criteria 1-3.
8) It occurs in scattered and localized infestations within habitat or land use types across the state.
9) It occurs as scattered individuals within a habitat or land use type.

Watch list A:

10) The plant meets criteria 1-3.
11) The plant has recently appeared as free living populations in Alabama, or
12) It is invasive in nearby states but its status in Alabama is unknown or unclear, and/or
13) It has the potential, based on its biology and its colonization history in the Southeast and elsewhere, to become highly invasive in Alabama.

Watch list B:

14) The plant meets criteria 1-2.
15) The species is planted in Alabama.
16) The plant has a documented history of invasiveness in other areas of the Southeast and/or is listed by the Global Invasive Species Program as a world-class invasive plant for habitats similar to the Southeast.