Invasive Plants and Animals of Florida

Monitor Lizard Aggressive and powerful, the Monitor Lizard is native to the Southeast – primarily Florida. They are herbivores and consume large amounts of native vegetation and working farm products

Asian Longhorned Beetle The Asian Longhorned Beetle is considered one of the most destructive invasive pests in the United States. Once established, it is capable of destroying 30 percent of all urban trees.

Shipping Foreign Shipping is one route invasive species arrive in the U.S. Poor shipping practices can bring in invasives within pallets, crates, and even within the cargo ship ballast water.

Giant Tiger Prawn The Giant Tiger Prawn, which can grow to be one foot long, has an unstoppable appetite for crabs and mollusks. Also, they reproduce at three times the rate of native shrimp further depleting food resources.

Burmese Python The Burmese Python, one of the world’s largest snakes, is an invasive species that thrives in Florida’s Everglades, it poses a threat to many of the native species.

Wild Pig The wild pig is an old world species – not native to the United States. As it roams and feeds, its only threat to our environment is to our environment due to the native and endangered plants and animals it eats.

Lionfish A popular aquarium species, the Lionfish has been found in non-native waters like the Bahamas. With no known predators and a huge appetite, they are capable of wiping out 90 percent of a reef.

Emerald Ash Borer The larvae of the Emerald Ash Borer drill holls into the bark of ash trees. This disrupts the flow of nutrients that rise up from the roots to the tree crown, resulting in tree death within a couple of years

Nonnative Freshwater Fish More than 500 fish and wildlife nonnative species, also known as exotic species, have been observed in Florida There are 23 species of fish that have regionally establish populations that are found in several counties in Florida Two permanent populations found within a single county

Nonnative Freshwater Fish 9 species that reproduce but have not formed stable populations 7 species that have not been observed to reproduce 14 species that have either died out or have been eliminated

How did they get there? Unknown Aquarium release Aquaculture escape Escape from Florida state facility Moved about by commercial fishermen Released by Florida to control other nonnative fishes Expansion from Alabama of introduced range

How did they get there? Released by the Department of Medicine, University of Miami Triploid (sterile) individuals stocked to control aquatic plants

Definitions An exotic plant is a plant that has been introduced to an area from outside its native range, either purposefully or accidentally A naturalized exotic plant is one that can sustain itself outside of cultivation, outside its native range. It is still exotic; it has not become native An invasive exotic plant is a naturalized exotic plant that is expanding its range into natural areas and disrupting naturally occurring native plant communities A native plant is one whose natural range included Florida at the time of Columbus’s “discovery” of America

What is so bad about invasives? When plants are introduced to a new location without the factors like weather, diseases, or insect pests that kept them under control in their native range, they can just keep growing and reproducing, out-competing and displacing the native plants This disrupts naturally-balanced native plant communities, resulting in reduction in biodiversity which adversely affects wildlife and alters natural processes such as fire frequency or intensity and water flow

Exotic plant species in Florida According to the University of South Florida, almost one-third of the plants growing wild in Florida are non-native and some of these have become serious problems They spread by wind (spores blown about), by water (Melaleuca trees in the Everglades) or by birds or other wildlife that eat the fruit and deposit the seeds in droppings far from the original plant. Others spread from expanding underground root systems.

Terrestrial Invasive Plant Species

Air Potato

Asparagus Fern

Brazilian Pepper Tree

Caesar’s Weed

Camphor Tree

Cogon Grass

Coral Ardesia

Kudzu

Lantana

Rosary Pea

Tropical Soda Apple

Elephant Ear

Aquatic Invasive Plant Species Highly invasive plants were reported in 94% of the public waters of Florida that were inventoried during 2012 This impacted more than 112,000 acres

Invasive aquatic plants have: Rapid growth Sexual and asexual reproduction Wide dispersal and survival Broad environmental tolerance Resistance to management

Problems caused by invasive plants include: Loss of recreation Severe oxygen depletion Stunted fish populations and fish kills Water-flow restrictions, flooding Navigation restrictions Accelerated sedimentation Habitat destruction Reduction in biodiversity Reduction in property values

Torpedo Grass

Wild Taro

Giant Salvina

Hydrilla

Para Grass

Hygrophila

Water Lettuce

Napier Grass

Water Spinach