Bittersweet’s Legacy:

More Bitter Than Sweet

To the Editor:

The members of the Conservation Commission are pleased to see so many bittersweet vines that have been cut throughout town. These invasive plants are easy to spot at this time of year with their orange berries clinging to tree branches. A chunk out of the vine stem will assure that the vine does not further damage the tree and that next year’s crop of berries does not reseed.

While several people have commented that they like their beauty, however, the bittersweet like other invasive plants — split bark euonymus, barberry, multiflora rose, burning bush — destroy habitat for native trees and plants that our animals have grown dependant upon.

Thanks to those people who have been cutting invasive plants. To those who would like to give a Christmas gift to our native trees, find and cut the vines on your property that spread their orange berries over the branches of your trees. The bittersweet has a bright orange root, a speckled stock that twists around its host tree and murders its host by chocking its growth.

Pat Barkman

Conservation Commission

49 Taunton Lake Road, Newtown                        December 14, 2009