As a bone lover, I think that their pharyngeal jaws are one of the coolest parts of their anatomy!
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I don’t hate invasives, I’m sure in their natural habitat they are amazing, but when you have a woodland overrun by so many invasives choking out life, not providing adequate nutrition to the wildlife that needs it (be it berries for birds or nectar/pollen for pollinators) it’s hard to have any love for them.
What people need to realize is that invasives have a serious effect on the environment and the wildlife that use them. But it’s hard to see that when we see a plant full of pollinators or birds going nuts for berries, we think hey they’re not that bad!
Except numerous studies have shown how the nectar in many of these is not sufficient, how the pollen in some of these don’t have the adequate nutrition needed for the larvae that will consume the pollen which affects their survivability.
Same with berries, many (if not all) of the berries lack the adequate nutrition to sustain our birds, especially migratory birds and in some birds it changes them physically or even poisons them (I think of amur honeysuckle changing the color of feathers which seems harmless but is actually detrimental to the birds and also Nandina or Heavenly bamboo berries being toxic to Waxwing birds since they gorge on berries and those berries are full of cyanin).
And I could write many more ways that invasives affect our local wildlife. So while they might be beautiful to us they are harmful to the other beings we share this piece of earth with, and those are the ones we have to think of.
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Personally, I love the Asian Ladybeetle (Harmonia axyridis). I like how variable it is, with a bunch of very beautiful and distinct colour morphs.
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Well, I indeed find wild roaches interesting. Just the American, Australian, and German make me go crazy because besides being a nuance, they are just… ugly.
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How about the use of an invasive (such as “butterfly” bush) as a larval host plant being close to 0?
Butterfly bush while nectar rich their biggest issue is they will spread to wild areas and take over trapping pollinators in a way because they can’t use them as a host plant.
And varieties that are said to be sterile there is no guarantee they will remain sterile. Best example of that is Callery Pear which was cultivated as a sterile variety and we’ve learned the hard way they didn’t remain sterile and have taken over roadsides and wild areas.
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Indeeeed! When you see them closely at eye level, they have wonderful little faces! I used to breed them for reptile food, but I had to switch to meal worms for this and other reasons : ’ (
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I love those wood roaches too, especially as a nymph they’re kinda cute, but I’m pretty sure they are native?
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Yeah, the wood roaches are native, I just used them as an example of “likeable” roaches. So maybe they weren’t a good example. But, still…
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I have to admit I love seeing the big beautiful Chinese Mantis! It’s not quite “invasive”, but definitely non-native here. They are so stunning looking, and twice as big as our native Carolina mantis, which I also love.
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Signal crayfish. Great fun to catch.Easy to spot in the water. Kids love them. Never seen a native (UK) crayfish.
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Lamium galeobdolon, the Yellow Archangel. From the striking silver on the leaves to the beautiful yellow flowers. Not so much the sneaky crawling out of the invisible borders of the garden.
I like this common name too.
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Should I ever come across Ailanthus altissima in my neighbourhood, I will do everything in my might/reach to eradicate/kill/destroy it. I have seen what damage that tree can wreak in the woods on the Carso above Trieste, Italy. It has killed off all native trees on a patch that I often drove past, turning about two acres of woodland with local species into an expansive monoculture of A. altissima in just a few years. I sincerely hate the plant.
Nevertheless, I find it absolutely beautiful. It is so splendidly symmetrical, and its flowers and leaves are stunning. No wonder it was imported as an ornamental plant. Yes, I secretly love it.
I met my first A. altissima years before when it appeared all by itself in one of my flower pots on the balcony, on the last floor of a building on top of a hill in the middle of the city. I rarely saw such wind-borne gifts up there. Within a season it had become a small tree, and I was all excited for its beauty. When a friend told me what it was and why there was a huge concerted effort to get rid of the species, I felt sorry for my little tree. I didn’t kill it. Not voluntarily, at least. What did it in was my absence (the friend enlisted to water my plants “forgot” there was a balcony).
Meanwhile I have found a similarly fascinating tree that is not native either, but that won’t kill off our native species and whose leaves are edible. It does however very much resemble A. altissima: Toona sinensis. So I figured I had better mark it lest it be destroyed inadvertently…
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???
Coypu is another name for Myocastor coypus or Nutria. Personally, I think coypu is a much better name, as “nutria” sounds like some kind of energy drink!
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Not invasive yet 
I prefer staghorn sumac which is very similar in appearance.
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Dandelions
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Agreed, one never knows. ;-) However, it is being used in a number of cities as ornamental tree replacing Ailanthus altissima because it is considered not invasive. Anyway, I know for a fact that there is absolutely no way I will let my little one escape!
As for Rhus typhina, yes, very much a look-alike, but:
- not native this side of the Atlantic either;
- I can’t eat its leaves
; and - it does not flower in late summer when very little else does.
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Dandelions are a fascinating group of species. Can’t find anything wrong with them. They are native to Europe, they’re pretty, and they are good for insects as well as edible for humans, rodents, ruminants, even for tadpoles.
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In Brazil, invasive species are not interesting at all. The best of it are the fruit plants spotted in urban area (but would be better if then were repleced by natives, because brazil have a great amount of native fruits that dont get the attention they deserve). Invasive species from other countries are predominantly boring, like snails and pine trees that obscure our exuberant nature. Brazil is large enough that some brazilian species can be invasive inside our country. Little cute monkeys get all the attention. People love then.
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