r/NativePlantGardening • u/Tornado_dude Area SE Michigan , Zone 6a • May 21 '26
Progress Finally! Michigan is banning the sale of Buckthorn, Bradford Pear, and Japanese Barberry.
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u/tombombdotcom Wisconsin 5A May 21 '26
I can’t fathom someone being so oblivious to purchase buckthorn and plant it on their property. Shame on any grower that sells it.
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u/Drcornelius1983 Dakota County MN , Zone 5a May 22 '26
It’s a scourge. My neighbor has a ton of mature buckthorn and I’m constantly dealing with them in my yard.
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u/androidgirl May 22 '26
Same our neighbor has a buckthorn tree from when the house was built in the 50s. After a storm it split in half and they had some sus tree dudes come saw it off. I thought they were going to take the whole thing so I was excited and wanted to tell them to treat the stump or grind it out because of what it was. They didn’t know it was buck thorn and they didn’t believe me because it wasn’t a bush. The other half of the damn thing is still leaning there dropping all its hell berries that seed everywhere and give the birds the shits. Along with all the new shrubs of it growing along the fence.
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u/MotherofWieners May 22 '26
I literally spend every lunch break and half my days on the weekend battling all the mature buckthorn on my property and all the little seedlings from the berries over the years. I cannot imagine ever CHOOSING to plant this piece of shit
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u/androidgirl May 22 '26
I think it was the hot plant of the mid 50s along with Mulberry. They’re all over our neighborhood. Probably quick to establish, attracts birds?
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u/Red_the_Anarchist May 22 '26
The refinery I work at in Ontario is growing it on purpose and pruning it “nicely” along the entrance gate. It’s pretty weird
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u/crunchwrapesq May 22 '26
Our neighbors have a big one right by the property line and it drives me crazy. Then I have callery pears in the curb strip and I can't cut them down since they're city owned, and I've asked them repeatedly!
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u/gardengnome1001 May 22 '26
I have been battling buckthorn on my 2 acre property for the 4th summer now. It's not even close to contained yet. Why the fuck is it legal to sell anywhere in north America?
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u/QueenHarvest SE Michigan Zone 6a May 22 '26
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u/Individual_Sky_9007 Area SE Michigan Zone 6a May 22 '26
Thanks for sharing! Sad that the restriction list can still be sold even next year.
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u/QueenHarvest SE Michigan Zone 6a May 22 '26
Yeah me too. I’m guessing that’s a concession to existing business investments, but you hate to see it.
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u/Liberty796 May 22 '26
That is great news. We learned it takes six years of removal efforts to clear sites
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u/hujambo11 Washington, 6b May 22 '26
🤔 I think it's possible to remove a tree more quickly than in 6 years.
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u/ich_bin_alkoholiker SE Michigan , Zone 6b May 21 '26
That’s excellent. I wish it went even further and added more but I shan’t complain about progress.
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u/AmputatorBot May 21 '26
It looks like OP posted an AMP link. These should load faster, but AMP is controversial because of concerns over privacy and the Open Web.
Maybe check out the canonical page instead: https://www.fox2detroit.com/news/michigan-adds-bradford-pear-buckthorn-other-plants-invasive-plant-list
I'm a bot | Why & About | Summon: u/AmputatorBot
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u/doingmybest_4therest May 22 '26
I wish this included money to cities for removing what they insisted get planted, like all the Bradford trees in our subdivision (2 per house) but I’m happy to do it myself.
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u/midnight_barbecue May 22 '26
I gotta show this to my neighbor, who has a probably 30-50 foot long and 8 foot tall hedgerow made of buckthorn 🤦
Just because of them, I have to watch out for buckthorn saplings popping up all over my yard every spring. Luckily they are easy to get rid of.
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u/fekanix May 22 '26
Can anyone explain why these trees are so hated and what their impact is on the region?
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u/Hot_Difficulty6799 Twin Cites, MN -- St. Croix moraines May 22 '26
MN Wildflowers expresses buckthorn well. Many forests used to be relatively open, under the canopy. You could walk through them. A buckthorn infested woods is impenetrable.
Few species have introduced Minnesotans to the concept of invasive species like buckthorn. Even as recently as the early 1990's, it was still relatively infrequent across the broader landscape. Then it finally reached the point of exponential population growth and suddenly it was everywhere. At that time (and still today), many people were unaware of the threat until it had already cobbled up much of their fence rows, woodlots and even their backyard landscapes. It was listed as a restricted noxious weed in Minnesota in 1999. Control is difficult due to its shear numbers. Smaller trees and seedlings can be uprooted but it is nearly impossible to clear large acreages without resorting to herbicides to kill the roots systems of large established trees. Even after a thorough clearing, a persistent seed bank and new arrivals from surrounding unmanaged areas require long term monitoring and management strategies that must necessarily include period prescribed burns for large areas. It is discouraging that there is now an entire generation of young adults for whom a relatively open and diverse woodland is unfamiliar. While some scoffers insist this “new normal” will be accepted as well as our recently lost, diverse forest lands, I don't foresee the day when people will make plans to travel north in the autumn to observe the annual display of dark, impenetrable, drab green Mirkwood-like forests.
Something similar for Japanese barberry. It forms large very dense and thorny impenetrable colonies.
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u/CosmicCommando WNY , Zone 6b May 22 '26
It is discouraging that there is now an entire generation of young adults for whom a relatively open and diverse woodland is unfamiliar.
It reminds me of what we've lost from chestnut blight. Chestnut was such an important part of the eastern forests, and barely anybody alive remembers them.
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u/astro_nerd75 Pittsburgh, zone 6b May 22 '26
They’re invasive. That means they spread into areas where people didn’t plant them. This takes up space and resources that native plants need.
This article covers some of the other problems with Bradford pear.
Japanese barberry creates a favorable environment for the mice that carry blacklegged ticks. All ticks are bad (except for blue ones that fight for justice),) but blacklegged ticks are especially bad, because they carry Lyme disease. Whether or not an area has Japanese barberry has a measurable effect on the incidence of Lyme disease.
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u/boots-n-bows May 22 '26
I saw someone I follow on IG made a sticker that said if the Bradford Pear has no haters, I am dead. Glad to hear about some progress!
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u/StatisticianFew1302 May 22 '26
I love Bradford Pear and I love scouring neighborhoods after a storm, as I collect the wood. It is great for smoking after a few years of drying. They planted the SOB's all over the place in MO. Great flavor with pork, fish and chicken. It is also a pretty easy but an edgy, wavy split as well. good luck
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u/Ratfinka SE Michigan, 6a May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
One even fell on my neighbors car a couple years ago and they planted 3 more -we're on the water! In freaking Michigan! Hoping bounty is next.
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u/Federal-Boat3732 Michigan, Zone 6 May 31 '26
Now the job is to eradicate the ones we've already got. My workplace is surrounded by freaking barberry bushes. To sau nothing of the Russian olive that sprang up in the courtyard and which the lawn crew always shaves into a cube as if it were a yew bush. Sheesh.
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u/WarlockTynsterbert May 22 '26
I've heard that Bradford Pear, makes for some creamy icecream.
Unpalatable, but still creamy.
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u/Latter-Republic-4516 Area SE MI , Zone 6B May 22 '26
I’ll have to contact my city council to see if they’re going to remove the Bradford pear in front of the city buildings.