WVXU: Study finds invasive plants are thriving in Southwest Ohio

He pointed to a close example, the landscaping outside his office on UC's Uptown Campus.

“This is winged euonymus, otherwise known as burning bush. And here is Chinese silver grass. It’s a popular ornamental, but the seeds are dispersed by the wind,” he said.

For his latest study published in the journal Ecological Restoration, he and his students examined the impact that nonnative, invasive plants are having on forests. He found that plants at arboretums and public gardens inadvertently can seed wild areas with nonnative plants.

Conover, a professor-educator in UC's College of Arts and Sciences, told WVXU's Cincinnati Edition that native plants support a far greater variety of insects and other wildlife than nonnative plants. 

“Several hundred species of moths will lay their eggs on an oak tree. And all those moth caterpillars are eaten by birds,” he told host Lucy May. “If you want to have the bird diversity, you need the caterpillars.”

Conover said nonnative plants can carry pathogenic fungi such as the one responsible for chestnut blight and Dutch elm disease.

“Butternuts are also being attacked by a fungus they think came from Asia,” he said. “If you introduce plants from other continents, you might be bringing pathogens with them.”

Listen to the interview on WVXU's Cincinnati Edition.

Featured image at top: UC Professor-Educator Denis Conover studies the impact of nonnative, invasive species. Photo/Andrew Higley/UC Marketing + Brand