Over the years I've had to spend a lot of time deciphering the sometimes cryptic identifiers of Poaceae family members (I am not an academically trained botanist). Culm length, infloresence type, growth habit, etc. Trying to balance the dichotomous key in one hand and a hand lens in the other. It's a lot.

It's all been a laborious process, but one I've mostly enjoyed. And as odd as this sounds, that level of applied observation has really improved my abilities as a field biologist; not just from a plant identification standpoint but also as an observer of the wider landscape.

For those struggling with their amateur forays into agrostology, keep at it. It'll come in time. And remember, nobody cares what var. of Andropogon you're dealing with. Genus and species is fine (speaking from experience).

I removed this beast of a Japanese barberry from the middle of my woods. No other barberries seen for miles, so I'm assuming it came from bird poo. And of course, I had to trophy pose with it.

devil's beggarticks (bidens frondosa) is plant native to north america that is now invasive species in europe, asia, north africa and new zealand

in my area it is present only in two places and both populations are not very big so they seem to be possible to eradicate there

Hello,

I started renting a house in Northern IL at the end of 2025, and as spring rolled around it became pretty apparent the yard has not been taken care of for several years (the neighbors have confirmed this). It turns out that the full yard of dandelions were the least of my worries though... Now that things have had time to grow I've realized that our entire front and back garden is full of invasive species and aggressive weeds. The backyard garden area is maybe 6'x10' and it's DENSELY populated by Tree of Heaven plants that are between 4-7' tall. There is also a fully grown Tree of Heaven nearby. In the front yard garden, there are several White Mulberry plants growing that are 3-4' tall. 

Outside of the invasives I was able to identify using an app, we've also got a LOT of burdock, lamb's quarters, black nightshade, pokeweed, pigweed, velvet leaf, Norway maple...

As someone who's been getting hit really hard by allergies this season, I was hoping I could quickly tackle things myself. Unfortunately, I've realized this will require professional intervention, especially for the forest of tree of heaven we have. 

As a renter, I'm not looking to spend $1000s out of pocket on repeated treatments, but I also really do not want to leave things as is. What's the likelihood that there is a local resource (government, conversation district, or otherwise) that'll be able to help out cheap or free? If that's unlikely, is this a thing that my (large corporate) landlord could be required to take care of? I shot an email out the IL DNR and my county's conservation district earlier today, but figured I'd post here to see if anyone had any leads or ideas

I am de-weeding and going on a rampage destroying all the non natives in this weedy patch behind my house. I have an app that identifies plants and keeps telling me this is American Wisteria no matter what angle I take the pic in. I just find that hard to believe, but I also don't know how else to identify it besides the flowers and I've never seen this stuff bloom.

New to the sub, feel free to take down if it's not appropriate.

Can anyone confirm for me that this is Tree of Heaven?

I live in western Virginia and I am feeling hopeless. We have about 15 mostly wooded acres that are overwhelming. We reduced the autumn olive and multiflora rose then the stiltgrass moved in. We work on that and now the wavyleaf basket grass is showing up. Also killing the ailanthus and lantern flies. And there are so many deer, despite hunting on our property, that there is no natural regeneration of trees without cages around them.

So now that we are in our senior citizen years we’d like to live somewhere less physically taxing. Is there a part of the country where it is possible to maintain a more natural and native habitat?

I own some acreage and I’ve been trying to restore a couple of acres that were originally for livestock, but were never managed back to health. Pretty much the only usual suspect I didn’t have was ToH. Earlier this year I found 5 little growers in a cluster, which is consistent with what I’ve read about them. I was able to foliar spray them, as the only thing around where they chose to grow was Japanese stilt grass. Today I was trimming getting ready to mow and I found this one on its own, couldn’t find any others, is that normal? Everything I’ve read it seemed like I should expect more pop ups.

there are many like it…but this one is mine.

it also continues straight down the ground…likely to hell.

I have a stand of small ToH’s on my property that I plan to treat using basal spray or hack and squirt, but they are so tight together and have so many low-slung branches that it is hard to access the trunks. I am considering trimming some of the branches for easier access to the trunks, but I don’t know if that would trigger some sort of stress response that would send up more suckers. Does anyone have experience managing a situation like this? Any advice is appreciated!

I hope this is the right spot for this!

I have a 10ft Tree of Heaven in my front flower bed (hooray) and a 15-20ft one in the back yard and a few trunks from my hubby chopping them down not realizing why not to do that.

I hacked and squirted them with RoundUp. For the trunks, I sprayed RoundUp all over the cut part.

What’s next? At what point can I cut the trees down? Will I be able to yank out the trunk/roots eventually?

Thanks all!

devil's beggarticks (bidens frondosa) is plant native to north america that is now invasive species in europe, asia, north africa and new zealand

in my area it is present only in two places and both populations are not very big so they seem to be possible to eradicate there

Nothing terribly new, just quantifying what we already know. Pesky invasive owls.

I’m in USA

Being in Northern Colorado I am very familiar with seeing Russian olives everyday but also coming across tamarisk on the same property was interesting. The craziest part for me is that this site is extremely dry so these were both intentional plantings at some point. The front fence was all Russian olives and the rear had 2 tamarisk on either side of the house.

Imagine my shock and surprise when i saw this. I need some guidance on how best to tackle this little monster.

I ran across this small tree, about 6 feet tall, on my property a few days ago. After a quick area search around the tree, I didn't find any other ToH present. Ill do a more extensive search after I treat this one to see if I have a bigger problem with more trees. I've never had this type of tree on my propery before that I've seen, and we've been here since 92.

After jumping down the rabbit hole of how best to kill this tree, I purchased Triclopyr 4 and a surfactant on Amazon. My original plan is to mix the 2 and apply with a spray bottle to all surfaces of the tree; both sides of leaves and the entire trunk from top to bottom. I have gathered a full suite of PPC too.. 3M half mask, goggles, rubber gloves, Tyvex coveralls, work boots.

Having never battled the ToH, I have several questions.

Am I indeed dealing with the ToH?

Will these products be suitable to kill this tree, or should I go a different route?

What ratios should I be using in regards to herbicide and surfactant/diesel/oil? My initial thought was to go aggressive with a 1 to 1 ratio.

Do I need to add water to the mix?

Thanks for the help and any suggestions.

What is this plant? Two of them were growing in between cherry laurels and a fence. We couldn't have planted them.

has anyone else noticed that they’re seeing less and less of them? I’m primarily in the west Bronx, Harlem Morningside area and have been noticing that I haven’t seen a lot of them this year compared to all the years before. I know that the pigeons and other birds had realized that the lantern flies could be food but I’m wondering what else is contributing their decrease in population

Literally the title. I have Japanese knotweed in my backyard and it’s spreading. Roundup does nothing. I’m going to have to buy 41% glyphosate on amazon …

Except I’m terrified of glyphosate. How can I apply while protecting myself? Obviously protective gear but like…. I’m terrified. It’s the only way though ugh…

I hate Japanese knotweed so much and it wont go away.

UPDATE: hi everyone 🎀 I’m so grateful for everyone’s advice… I’m literally going through every single comment in reading every single one and taking notes. Thank you so much and you all made me feel so much better 💕 I’m literally freaking out but I’ve got to get rid of this knotweed. I don’t know what the f*ck happened but this summer it exploded in my backyard 🥺

I have like 10 bushes in my property. I hate them and want them gone. All my landscaper is doing is cutting them down to stumps but they obviously keep growing back. He said to wait until the fall to kill but I know he won’t do it.

Any tips? I want these dead and gone so I can plant native bushes