Do you know what’s growing in your backyard?

Thanks to the Garden Club of Newtown members’ efforts, residents can take a look at some of the problem plants that are thriving in Newtown. Information and photos of these plants are now on display at C.H. Booth Library.

“September Is Invasive Plant Removal Month,” announces a sign greeting guests to the library’s back entrance. Beside it are posters giving away clues to recognizing invasive plants that crowd out native species and over time can even kill mature trees. Garden Club of Newtown members are hoping to help resident green thumbs know how to spot plants such as Bittersweet, Mile-A-Minute vine, Porcelain Berry, Bindweeds, Dodder, Black Swallowwort, Akebia, and Japanese Honeysuckle.

Information, photos, and in some cases cut samples of plants and vines have been on display since Monday, September 22, and will remain available through Sunday, September 28. The display will then relocate to Newtown Municipal Center.

Garden Club President Holly Kocet said the purpose of the display is two-fold. It will help homeowners identify invasive vines, she said, as well as provide information on how to keep them from overtaking properties. The second purpose, said the certified Master Gardener, is to educate people on “how harmful [invasives] are to native flora and fauna because they crowd out and destroy native plants that support birds and other wildlife.”

“Invasive plants and vines are rapidly taking over natural areas in town,” Ms Kocet said this week. Invasives, which are not native to the US, “are opportunistic and quickly get a foothold where soil is disturbed during construction. In fact they thrive in disturbed areas. Clearing land for new roads and houses also creates more roadside and forest edges where invasives can take advantage of sunlight.”

Ms Kocet said that if native seeds and berries “aren’t readily available, birds eat invasive fruits which also helps to spread the ‘bad seeds.’”

Club member Mary Gaudet-Wilson is “very concerned about invasives,” she said. “To be good stewards, we need to recognize invasives … bittersweet is certainly something that most of us have in our back yards.”

Residents can recognize and remove plants growing on their property, she hopes. The small, individual efforts “maybe won’t solve Newtown’s problem, but at least it won’t be worse in our back yards,” she said. Ms Gaudet-Wilson hopes to reach more people with the display, and promote awareness and education about plants hindering the growth of native species.

Included in materials provided are pictures and brief descriptions of various problem plants.

Bittersweet: Garden Club literature describes this plant as one of the “most damaging of any common vines in our area.” If allowed to thrive, it grows up on trees and bushes, “strangling them and blocking the sunlight, killing them in many cases.”

Bittersweet is known for its pretty orange-red berries in the fall. The berries are often picked and used in fall decorations.

“It is best if you can intervene before the plant has red berries, as the birds like them and will spread them about as they move around your area,” the information states.

The best time to cut vines is in late summer or September.

However, pulling up small bittersweet plants can be done any time during the year.

Mile-A-Minute: As the name implies, Mile-A Minute grows rapidly, producing a thick tangle of vines. It is not common in Newtown, but there are places which have become overrun with this hard-to-control vine.

Mile-A-Minute has pale green triangular leaves and a distinctive circular cup-shaped structure on the stems at the nodes. Flowers appear in mid-summer and produce deep blue berries. Pulling up the plants is fairly easy but should be done before the berries ripen. Mile-A-Minute should be reported to Newtown’s Land Use Agency at 203-426-4276. Conservationists in past years have made efforts to combat the plant by introducing specific insects that consume it.

Porcelain Berry: Like many invasives, porcelain berry is an attractive plant which has leaves that resemble small grape leaves. Its distinctive berries, which are evident in the late fall, are a beautiful blue or purple color. While this plant is not common in Newtown, it can be seen on town property behind Reed Intermediate School.

Bindweeds: Two forms of bindweed are commonly found in Newtown. One is the wild Morning Glory type, which has distinctive white to pinkish flowers. The other is black bindweed which has clusters of two to six small flowers in the summer.

Both bindweeds have slender stems which twine around other plants and green heart-shaped or arrow-shaped leaves. Bindweeds can grow four or more feet in length and have deep strong roots.

It is best to get rid of bindweed before it flowers and sets seed.

Dodder: Dodder is a “strange looking parasitic plant” which has no leaves and “looks like strands of orange colored spaghetti,” the literature states. It attaches to a host plant and by mid-summer will grow small white bell-shaped flowers which become fruit. The fruits contain seeds which will likely become next year’s crop of dodder. Dodder was found recently at Dickinson Park.

Black Swallowwort has dark purple flowers and a seed pod which is similar to milk weed. This plant can completely overtake a field, creating tangled thickets and blocking out native plants.

Monarch butterflies frequently lay their eggs on swallowwort seed pods. The plant is poisonous to Monarchs, however, and its larvae will not survive.

Frequent mowing, two or three times a year, just as the pods are beginning to form, is a good way to reduce swallowwort.

Akebia, also known as chocolate vine, grows as a groundcover and climbs shrubs and trees by twining. Once established, its dense growth crowds out anything it encounters.

Japanese Honeysuckle is an “attractive vine with its fragrant flowers,” according to the Garden Club display, which bloom from late April through July. It spreads rapidly via tiny fruit seeds and forms a tall dense woody shrub layer that “aggressively displaces native plants.”

Repeated pulling of entire vines and root systems may be effective in controlling this plant.

For residents who would like help with identification of invasives, call Holly Kocet at 203-426-4303 or Mary Wilson at 203-417-1109.

C.H. Booth Library, at 25 Main Street, is open Monday through Thursday from 9:30 am until 8 pm; Friday, 11 am to 5 pm; Saturday, 9:30 am to 5 pm; and Sunday, noon to 5 pm.