Gasp! What a scandalous post! Natives we HATE? We all love natives bevcause they are indigenous, right?

I am beginning to distrust Rhus aromatica. Mine keep getting cankers and dying back. I have seen this occuring on many other plantings, too. It may be an unreliable plant.
I dislike Discorea, too. The daggone stuff twines around everything and is tough to pull out. I may start eating those roots after all!
Celastrus scandens is another one on my loathe list and I do not trust it to be a pure species anymore.
Phytolacca doesnt make my top 1000 list, either.

Rx

I would say #1 would have to be Rhus radicans ;o)

I'm not sure I hate any natives, but at certain times I have been extremely annoyed at some of them. First, natives that sting (Urtica sp.) or stick (Rubus sp., others) me or cause me to develop a painful rash (Rhus radicans, etc.). Second, weedy or otherwise aggressive natives that pop up or expand where I'm trying to grow something that's more timid and needs room (Bidens frondosa, Viola sp., Rubus, certain grasses and sedges, others).

My books tell me that a lot of the weedy natives will calm down when I stop disturbing the soil during these first few years of establishing the garden and my other natives are better established. Many of them are just exploiting a niche for quick growing, fast-spreading plants that wait patiently in the soil for disturbance and then go like blazes. As for the pain-inducing plants, I've pretty much learned to recognize them and I mostly keep a respectful distance.

So I get annoyed but we usually make up later.

-- wd

Rhus radicans has gotten me a couple of times, is no friend of mine. I'm going to try to photograph it in flower this weekend, could be rather tricky going, wish me luck!

Opuntia polyacantha, and Opuntia fragilis have also gotten me good a couple of times, tweezers in my backpack is essential equipment. Kneeling on (which really hurts), or putting the palm of your hand on one is easy to do when photographing wildflowers in dry grassland country.

In my garden, which is rich soil, I've had to weed, weed, weed out several natives to alas eliminate them after I introduced them: Aslcepias speciosa, Oenothera caespitosa, Solidago missouriensis, Glaux maritima, Sphaeralcea coccinea, Corydalis sempervirens.

Glenn is this your site? I just want to say I really like it. I have used it as a resource many times. And I have to say I agree with many of your comments/ratings! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: site

Ragweed!!! PF

BTW, that noxious pest kudzu is actually well behaved in its native Japan, imagine that?

flowersandthings - yes that's me, glad you found the site useful.

I have a favour to ask you and others in this thread, can you tell me if you think the images at the link below look dark?

I have a new computer monitor at home where they look fine, but when viewed from my computer at work (and other computers at work) they look really dark. I may need to lighten up any images I've produced using my new monitor.

Here is a link that might be useful: Elephant Head - too dark?

I've never seen elephant head live in person so its hard for me to say if the pictures are "dead on" (colorwise) but I think they look okay. They certainly don't look faulty. The color shows up a certain purple/burgundy in most pics. Is that the color it is supposed to be? :)
I did google some images and found the color similar.... just sometimes more purple and pink. It is a pretty flower none the less. :)

yes sir, rhus radicans is the first that came to mind when i saw this thread...it has made me very ill on more than one occaision.

I hate to say but I've come to dislike Red Maple.

My property was clear cut some 30 years ago. All of the adjacent properties have nice oaks, hickory, walnut, beech. While I have 2 acres of nothing but red maple, and deer are such a problem that any other tree seedling that grows is promptly eaten.

Ragweed..both the common and giant.

All of the Toxicodendron, including vernix (posion sumac), radicans (poison ivy), rydbergii (western PI), diversilobum (Poison oak)... all of them. In the garden I hate Impatiens capensis (jewelweed), it grows everywhere. And I think that Cimicifuga racemosa smells like bad B.O.
Oh, and I think that Acer saccharum (silver maple) is a trash tree.
Aloha,
t

I find this post very interesting because often time I think there is a fine line between "natives" and "weeds". I just started into this area of gardening so I haven't had much time, but I have a love/hate relationship with trumpetvine. It provides great cover and interest for wildlife in the summer and winter and the hummingbirds love it, but it is EVERYWHERE in my yard. I just pull them up as I find them.

TBT

Thorny smilax. I understand there are a few without thorns, but most of them have thorns and they can be so aggressive.

I spoke to a farmer and, his biggest problem is Bur-cucumber.

Since I am genetically "lucky", I dont get bothered by Rhus. I can yank it out with bare hands.
I agree with the Smilax hatred, and Aralia spinosa is another native I can live without.
Fredsbog, red maple is the #1 tree that I pull from my beds. I wish oaks regenerated from seed this easily!

Rx

Probably my least favorite are my pecan seedlings because they are so hard to get rid of but the purple nightshade is a close second. It is spinny & shows up everywhere.

K-

Wow, flowersandthings, you're hard to please. ;)

People who feel immune to Rhus species actually up their chances of reaction upon each contact, sensitizing themselves to the point that they suddenly are allergic. The classic is a local man who made money on the side pulling ivy for people and nearly died in the hospital when he finally had sensitized himself. It may take half a lifetime of exposure. I dislike the bindweed type plant that has leaves like morning glory or arrow shaped but does not even bloom. Some of them, with white or pink flowers appeal to me in certain situations, but this plant only produces prodigious amounts of vine and brown seed.

Luckily, I dont have any time for "Rhus removal" side jobs.
Its never bothered me, but I aint about to roll around in the stuff, either!

Rx

I have had the exact opposite experience. Was very allergic when I was a kid. Now I am not.

Just out of curiosity, have any of you further west noticed allergy to Phacelia (a.k.a. scorpionweed, caterpillar weed, etc.)? The symptoms are pretty much identical to those of allergy to poison ivy, but it seems that far fewer people are aware of the plant. It's extremely abundant out here, maybe just fewer people are allergic. Or maybe when people get the rash they assume there must've been some poison ivy around they didn't notice... that's what I did the first couple times, before I figured out what was going on.

Patrick Alexander

Trumpet vine for sure. It, along with the introduced and invasive honeysuckle, has choked out my wonderful wild blackberry patch.

Sue

I hate lantana, it stinks, and it's flower buds look sorta like blackberries but it's poisionous and then I want actual blackberries. Growing up in FL we called it a weed, now when I'm in GA or TX it's a plant people pay to put in. I know it's totally rediculus but I HATE LANTANA.

So there!
:)

Pokeweed--Phytolacca americana!

Re.dark photo question from Glen_Cdn_Prairies_z3: They are not too dark on my monitor. In fact, lovely!!

There is only one lantana that is considered "native": Lantana involucrata. I doubt that is the one you are complaining about. It is the naturalized lantana that is so aggressive in Florida and which is being sold in the US (lantana camara). Lantana montevidensis is the trailing purple one that is recently available in nurseries. It is also from the tropics.

Here is a link that might be useful:

esh, your right, this is really interesting. the one I'm use to seeing is definately lantana camara. I thought for sure it was native, it's all over central florida. Maybe that's why I dislike it so much, somehow it just doesn't belong...that and it stinks.

It's weird for me to dislike a plant, I don't even hate sandspurs; I do avoid them to save my feet, but lantana camara just rubs me wrong.

LOL

Oh this is an interesting link that says there are actually 2 native varieties (Lantana involucrata-which I have seen wild) and (Lantana depressa-which I haven't seen but has pretty lemon colored flowers). It mentions that (Lantana montevidensis-which is quite pretty) is not native but is also not invasive.

Link: http://aquat1.ifas.ufl.edu/aq-f99-4.html

Pokeweed, but I only hate it in my garden. Elsewhere, it's lovely :)

I was never allergic to poison ivy as a kid, but now I break out into suppurating rashes from minor (i.e., "When the heck did I touch poison ivy?") contact. I had always assumed it was a difference between the plants in New England and those down here in Pennsylvania.

White snakeroot - eupatorium whatever is. It took over the wood edges near my mother's house because it was the only thing the deer wouldn't eat. Monotonous swaths of raggedy dust white.

Poison ivy and relatives (Toxicodendron) , without a doubt. Stuff messes me up bad, bad, bad....

As for trees, I could really do with a lot less black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia). Got the stuff popping up in my lawn like dandelions.

Finally, wingstem/white crownbeard (Verbesina spp.). Stuff chokes out just about everything in the forest border. Some would be fine, but I'd prefer a mix with something else.....

I think in most cases there's a love-hate rather than a pure hate relationship with certain native plants. I've recently been fighting wild grape (V. riparia) which has grown on my serviceberry and apple trees among others and threatened to overwhelm them. On the other hand, the grape provides a lot of food for the local birds and some good grape leaves for cooking and for our horses to eat,so I still love the plant. With this said, vines in general--Virginia creeper, trumpet vine, smilax, American bittersweet, are often problematic because their nature is to run rampant and steal sunlight from other plants.

Allelopathic plants are also sometimes problematic, particularly black walnut and goldenrods. Everyone knows about juglone, but goldenrods also threaten to stunt, kill, or overwhelm other wildflowers I've planted in our meadow, so I have to thin them out.

As has often been said, weediness is a matter of personal taste, desire, and space. In my large wild yard, I like phytolacca and jewelweed, for instance.

Chris

Like just about everyone else, I am no big fan of poison ivy. Virginia creeper can be quite weedy as well.
We've had a problem with Indian hemp (Apocynum cannabinum) in some of our gardens as well - once established, it spreads by underground roots and continues to sprout even as you pull the shoots out above ground.
Red Maple (Acer rubrum) is the most prolifically seeding tree that I've ever seen - more prolific even than the Norway maple, which is sometimes considered invasive.

turbo_ptl-- Verbesina alternifolia would be high on my list of annoying natives, too. Stuff forms dense stands in bottomland in Indiana, taller than me and a pain to walk through.

Senecio aurea (a.k.a. Pakcera aurea) is also pretty obnoxious. It too forms dense stands in bottomland, tending to exclude a lot of other stuff, but at least it's short and easier to walk through...

Patrick Alexander

Cinquefoil, which could overwhelm my prairie plants if I didn't do radical pulling every spring and can even hold its own against Canada anemone. (My gardens are merely carved out of lawn, so it's an edge effect.) And while I'm on the subject, Canada anemone, which I put in my woodland garden and now requires serious digging up every year to prevent it from overwhelming all areas that receive sun. It's not easy to dig up, because every tiny little piece roots. I'm not terribly wild about ragweed, either.

POLK WEED, dastardly stuff! Poison Ivy, and also the native Carolina cherry which, in this envornment is a freaking nightmare of a tree.

GGG

Eastern Red Cedar

Here is a link that might be useful: Eastern Red Cedar

I just found out that I am allergic to Phacelia. I love the flowers though. This is after ripping out all the borage that seeded in my yard that I was also allergic to. Basically anything that COULD cause a skin reaction jumps all over me.

Pennsylvania Smartweed
Red Maple

Jenny

I have seen Poke Weed tubers (almost) as big as a watermellow. Yikes! I just pull the stem and hop for the best.

Hackberry, hackberry, and hackberry.

Red maple, wild grape, and Virginia creeper - clippers and dots of brush-killer.

I hate anything with thorns and lawn violets which are taking over my flower beds (if they are native, I'm not sure). The one redeeming thing about violets is if there's a nuclear winter, I'm sure they will survive, and all parts of the violets are edible.

I don't develop a rash from Phacelia, but my allergies go wild each year after seed are set and I pull up plants to scatter around the property for more flowers. I can spend about 10 minutes on the job, and then I have to go inside and wash my hands and face and change clothes to recover.

There's a long list of plants that can cause contact dermatitis just like poison ivy, so not all outbreaks can be blamed on it.