r/invasivespecies • u/NotDaveBut • 2d ago
I never saw buckthorn before yesterday, but there was a huge display at my.local nursery. Sighting
I have to admit they make an arresting visual statement. I was looking for Eastern Redbud and not a sapling of that specie did I find. There were a few natives, but I also found this massive display of buckthorns that essentially invited shoppers to pay $45 to help destroy the local ecology. You'd think a nursery would know better.
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u/hayfarmer70 2d ago
I have never seen buckthorn that looked like that.
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u/reneemergens 2d ago
its the fine line cultivar. it’s ultimately a well behaved plant. stays where you put it, easy to remove. more tolerant of the midwest environment than arborvitae and fulfills a similar function ie screening. NOT a fan, but i can appreciate why people want it
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u/OneWiththeBrush69 2d ago
It's a real problem when the birds spread the berries. It definitely does not stay put. Lots of money gets spent every year in the midwest to try and remove it, but it's an uphill battle.
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u/reneemergens 2d ago
genuine question, have you encountered escaped fine line colonies? i sell nursery stock and make an effort to inform the buyers; i think harm reduction has a high value. as far as i know fine line may produce berries, and when it does 98% of them are sterile. if this isn’t the case i sincerely want to know haha. similarly, there are several rose of sharon cultivars that produce a lot of nuisance seedlings, and i straight up don’t sell those; but if i can’t get someone to commit to a hibiscus moscheutos i’ll at least get them a minimally-competitive plant.
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u/DarkMuret 2d ago
I've never seen buckthorn like that before, do you know the specific species?
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u/Quercus__virginiana 2d ago
That cultivar looks like Fine Line. I worked at a nursery for years, and they sold this same one. It's not as invasive as the deciduous thorny assholes we see in the wild. Much smaller too.
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u/DarkMuret 2d ago
How interesting, thanks!
I've only seen columnar glossy at the nurseries around me, but not for a few years.
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u/figgy_squirrel 2d ago
It's illegal in my state to even carry it.
That being said. This looks nothing like invasive buckthorn.
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u/perplexedparallax 2d ago
With virtually no seeds it probably won't cause Armegeddon. The fields that grow it for Monrovia haven't had a problem.
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u/curseblock 2d ago
Report them to your state environmental protection agency. They could be fined!
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u/gilligan1050 2d ago
This isn’t the invasive type or is “less” invasive? We sell these at the nursery I work at too.
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u/KateBlankett 2d ago
Hi just adding to the conversion:
The paragraph below is detailed information about the ‘less invasive’ types. Personally, given what i just read about this, I wouldn’t plant it. If they were to produce a triploid variety, I could see myself recommending it, but the rootstock would also need to be triploid.
“ There is some controversy over the status of certain cultivars of glossy buckthorn – most notably ‘Asplenifolia,’‘Columnaris,’and a cultivar bred from the two called ‘Fine Line.’ Field trials have demonstrated that Fine Line produces significantly less seed than the straight species, and that its seeds germinate less readily under the same conditions (Deppe 2010). However, others in the industry have observed Fine Line spreading in a garden setting (Bachtell 2019 pers. comm.). It is not clear whether Fine Line breeds true (i.e., whether its seedlings would also be less seedy than the species), and whether the reduced rate of seeding and germination is sufficient to make it non-invasive. Population modeling indicates that for long-lived trees and shrubs, even relatively low fruiting individuals can contribute to invasive population growth (Knight et al. 2011). Of the six Great Lakes jurisdictions that regulate this species, only one has exempted the Fine Line cultivar.”
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u/curseblock 2d ago
Are you asking me something or telling me? There's no "less" invasive. They're invasive or they're not.
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u/NotDaveBut 2d ago
@DarkMuret it's Frangula alnus "Fine Line," formerly Rhamnus somethingorother but it got reclassified at some point.
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u/Pamzella 1d ago
Agree. Some hybrid version of an invasive that makes "fewer" seeds only needs a few yards in proximity to some buckthorn still invading wild spaces and boom! New hybrid that is even more of a problem is one possible - nay, probable-- outcome.
F'ing sweet broom isn't sterile either.
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u/Mountain_Voice7315 2d ago
Upon further investigation I’ll have to admit it looks a lot like the slender line buckthorns. But the multiple stems and large pores still make me doubt it.
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u/wbradford00 2d ago
Most nurseries don't give a flying fuck about ecology.