Invasive Brush Plants – Part 1

Just as there are the Big Three Dangers at Dogwood Ranch, there are the Big Three Invasive Brush Plants: 1. yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria); 2. Juniper, also called Texas cedar (Juniperus virginiana) and 3. Mesquite (Prosopis gladulosa var. glardulosa).

As described in the post describing the Blackland Prairie, heavy cultivation of the land in Washington County gave an opening for invasive plant species to do what invasive species do best – invade.

All three of these plants are undesirable in Texas when they become invasive such that state biologists, agricultural agents and wildlife experts encourage Texans to rid their property of these plants. Generally, the problem with these plants is they are water-hogs, invasive and push-out the native grasses and plants. For instance, yaupon holly underbrush can be so dense in the woods we cannot even walk through it. Bcause it is evergreen and densely foliated, very little grass will grow under them. The foliage usually starts about a foot up the trunk and give whitetail deer little cover from predators, such as coyotes. The coyotes learn to lay flat on the ground to look out into the yaupon where deer, and particularly fawn, can be seen if bedded down in the trees.

Juniper also create dense shade in which little grass grows. Plus, the juniper tend to grow up next to the trunk of other trees like oak and elm and suck the water way from these more desirable native trees.  On Dogwood Ranch, we noticed lots of large juniper trees with the stump of a dead oak or eml right next to it.  Our theroy is that the juniper contributed to the death of the other tree by sucking-up the water and nutrients

Dogwood Ranch doesn’t have a serious mesquite problem but there is just enough to be nuisance. Besides its invasive quality, if you have ever stepped on a mesquite thorn with bare feet or had one penetrate the sole of your shoe, you understand that any mesquite is too much mesquite-unless its being used to smoke your barbecue!

When the county agricultural agent and biologist came out to Dogwood in 2003, they both encouraged us to get rid of the yaupon and juniper. We did not have any mesquite on that portion of the property. Looking across the fence line to a neighbor’s property South of Dogwood, the new juniper growth was intense and the biologist shook his head in dismay saying “I hate to see this kind of thing” meaning property owners that allow juniper to further invade their property.

We took their advice to heart despite that about 2/3 of the initial Dogwood Ranch property was choked with dense yaupon holly brush. Further, the juniper grew undisturbed during Dogwood's hunting lease days for decades so the trees reached heights 50 or 60 feet. Through trial and error and advice from experts and other landowners, we have developed eradication programs using different technics for each type of invasive brush. In next few posts, I will describe our now finely tuned process for each type of plant and circumstance.  By far the most difficult of the three to control is the yaupon so I will start with it.