Exotic & Invasive plants in Florida

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Click pictures to see full sized images

Picture - Cogongrass in bloom

Name - Cogongrass, Japanese blood-grass

(Imperata cylindrica)

Category 1 Invasive plant

Family - Poaceae (Grasses)

Description - Perennial. Considered one of the worst top ten weeds worldwide. 3 to 10 feet in height, white off center mid-vein on leaves distinguishes this species from other grasses. Flowers year-round in south Florida.

Pictures - Elephant grass, flower head

Name - Elephant grass, Napiergrass

(Pennisetum purpureum)

Family - Poaceae

Habitat - Roadsides, Moist Ruderal, Ditch banks, Wet Prairie, Swamp margins

Description - Category 1 invasive plant, native to Africa. Tall grass to 16 feet high, stems to 3/4 inch diameter. Leaves are 12- 16 inches long with sharp finely serrate margins. Stems are hirsute, and yellow to purplish in color.   Spreads primarily by rhizomes, forming dense thickets. Flowers in late summer, fall.

Pictures - Schefflera, Growing in native scrub habitat.

Name - Schefflera, Queensland Umbrella Tree, Octopus Tree

(Schefflera actinophylla)

Family - Araliaceae

Habitat - Coastal strand, Flatwoods, Hammocks, Scrub

Description - Introduced category 1 invasive species, to 40 feet tall with single or multiple greenish trunks. Leaves are palmately compound with 7 - 16 oblanceolate leaflets, alternate, shiny green on long petioles. Red flowers in summer and fall on large inflorescence at stem tips, produces large numbers of seeds which are spread by birds. Seedlings often seen growing on native cabbage palms.

Pictures - Climbing Cassia flower, leaves, seed pods

Name - Climbing Cassia, Christmas Cassia, Christmas Senna

(Senna pendula var.glabrata)

Family - Fabaceae

Habitat - Ruderal, Coastal Strand, Hammocks

Description - Introduced category 1 invasive species. Sprawling shrub to 13 feet tall, leaves alternate, pinnately compound with 3 -6 pairs of leaflets. Leaflets are oblong, up to 1 1/2 inches long with largest at tip. Flowers are yellow to greenish-yellow to 1 1/2 inches or slightly more across with curved stamens, produced on racemes near tips of branch in late fall to early winter. Fruit is a brown smooth pod to 5 inches or more long containing numerous seeds.

Pictures - (Left to right) Turk's Turban fruit, flower stalk, flower detail

Name - Turk's Turban, Skyrocket, Tube flower

(Clerodendrum indicum (L.)Kuntze)

Family - Lamiaceae

Habitat - Ruderal

Description - Introduced, native to the Malay Archipelago. Semi-woody perennial shrub or annual in colder regions. Long, hollow stems mostly un-branched 6 - 9 feet high, leaves are 4 - 6 inches long, arranged in whorls, elliptic with entire, wavy margins. numerous white flowers on a large inflorescence from late summer into fall.

Pictures - (Left to right) Castor bean plants, leaf, seed pods

Name - Castorbean, Castor bean

( Ricinus communis )

Family - Euphorbiaceae

Habitat - Disturbed areas

Description - Introduced non-native plant. May grow as a shrub or tree & as an annual or perennial. Castor bean is capable of attaining a height of 40+ feet in a tropical climate though it's more common in the 10 - 20 foot range in much of South Florida. 

Large palmate leaves to nearly 24 inches wide with 6 or more lobes, margins toothed. Stems are herbaceous except on larger specimens the base of the main stem may become woody. The leaves & stems of Castor bean may be green, red or purple. Flowers are produced on an inflorescence in warm months followed by spiny capsules containing the seeds. All parts of the castor bean plant are poisonous, with the seeds being the most toxic.

Pictures - Rose Myrtle plant with flower & buds

Name - Downy Myrtle, Rose Myrtle

( Rhodomyrtus tomentosa )

Family - Myrtaceae

Habitat - Pinelands & flatwoods, margins of lakes, marshes

Description - Invasive exotic shrub to 6 feet tall, introduced to Florida in 1920s as an ornamental and as a fruit bearing plant. 1-2 inch wide, profuse rose colored flowers in spring from leaf axils. Fruit is a purple globose berry 1/2 in. in diameter. Birds & mammals disperse seeds. Forms dense thickets, crowding out native plants.

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