CLOSE

A crawling plant originally thought to stabilize dunes has since been labeled an invasive species, and experts who have found it on Pensacola Beach say it may pose a risk to hatchling sea turtles and beach mice.

The state of Florida recently listed beach vitex on the noxious weed list, making it illegal to purchase the plant in Florida or move it into or within state boundaries, according to the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension Office.

Rick O’Connor, the UF/IFAS Extension sea grant agent in Escambia County, has been working to eradicate the weed from the area.

"The thing with invasives is you really got to get them quick and early," O'Connor said. "Or else ... it's here. There's nothing you're going to do. You can go out and pull all you want but there's just so many. You just can't do it."

The beach vitex was brought to the United States from Asia and introduced in the Carolinas to stabilize fragile dunes following Hurricane Hugo in 1989, according to the UF/IFAS Extension Office. The weed soon took over, however, because it releases chemicals in the soil that draw water away from other plants such as sea oats and causes them to die off, O'Connor said. 

He discovered the beach vitex on Pensacola Beach five or six years ago when a homeowner found it on their property. O'Connor had relative success destroying the weeds back then, and many homeowners who had it as landscaping were receptive to pulling it.

But one day more recently, O'Connor was hiking at the Naval Live Oaks area and found it there. And now he's found one plant on Perdido Key as well. 

It's also appeared in Okaloosa County and Jacksonville, as well as Alabama's Baldwin and Mobile counties.

How it got to the Pensacola Beach is somewhat of a mystery. O'Connor said he asked all the homeowners who had it where it came from and they said they bought it at a nursery or their landscaping company chose it.

"We are completely baffled by that," O'Connor said. "My hunch is it was being sold through the commercial horticulture businesses, but why it was being used here and not other places, I don't know. Which goes back to the question I'm trying answer: It may be more widespread than we think."

The plant grows vines across the surface of sand, and in the summer it can grow as much as 20 feet per week, O'Connor said. So it could easily cover up a sea turtle nest and even entrap the hatchlings.

O'Connor is also concerned about the beach mouse, which feeds on the seeds of native plants. He said experts aren't sure of whether the mouse would eat the seeds of the beach vitex.

Related coverage

Taxi proposed: Water taxi dock at Community Maritime Park could bridge gap between Pensacola, Gulf Breeze

Sand lost: Navarre Beach lost about 100 million cubic yards of sand during Hurricane Sally

It can also be detrimental to the dunes themselves. The sea oats have a fibrous roots to hold the dunes together, unlike the tap root of the beach vitex.

"There is a potential during a hurricane that the dune is not as secure as it would be had the native plants been there," O'Connor said.

Beach vitex begins as a vine and has leaves that are almost circular with a silvery bluish tone. They produce a beautiful lavender flower, which is an uncommon color for native plants, O'Connor said.

If someone believes they found a beach vitex, they can photograph it and send it to O'Connor at roc1@ufl.edu or call the extension office at 850-475-5230.

If it's on public land, peoplene can pull it up, O'Connor said. But if it's on the Gulf Islands National Seashore or on private property, people can only notify the extension office.

"Our recommendation is, again, if you're concerned about dune stability and erosion of your property, we would recommend removing it and putting in a native plant. That just solves an invasive problem we don't really want to have," O'Connor said.

Madison Arnold can be reached at marnold@pnj.com and 850-435-8522.

Read or Share this story: https://ift.tt/34uBRdx