NOW IS A GOOD TIME TO IDENTIFY THE INVASIVE COMMON BUCKTHORN

COMMON BUCKTHORN: OPPOSITE, GLOSSY GREEN LEAVES AND THORN-LIKE TERMINAL BRANCHES...

CLUSTERS OF BACK, CHERRY-LIKE BERRIES...

...CONTAINING TWO-OR THREE STONEY SEEDS TAHT ARE FLAT ON ONE SIDE

MULBERRY LEAVES, STILL GREEN...

...ALSO COMMON LILAC

Friday, 9:00 AM.  50 degrees F, up from 42 earlier.  Dawn was soft and foggy.  Wind SSW, with light gusts.  The sky is mostly cloudy, the humidity is 92% and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.89".

   If a tree or  shrub is still green in the far north, it is probably an alien invasive species, or a species from Europe or much further south in North America (however, many woody plants from northern Asia  have colored fall leaves).
   This is a good time to locate and identify the very invasive common buck thorn, Rhamnus cathartica, a large, vigorous shrub, sometimes treelike, that has mostly opposite leaves and branches and glossy, dark green leaves. The bark on older trunks is glossy and dotted with lenticels, and thus looks much like that of cherry or young birch. At this time of the year buckthorn bears bunches of shiny black berries the size of wild cherries.  Each berry contains two or three small, nut-like seeds that are flat on one side.  The species name refers to the bitter tasting berries causing nausea and worse if ingested.  So, now is a good time to eliminate this invasive pest by cutting it down or pulling it up, but strip the berries from the branches and put them in the garbage or they will simply spread wherever the plant is disposed of.   The same will happen if the wood is run through a chipper without properly disposing of the berries and the chips subsequently used as mulch. Cut stumps are best treated with an herbicide to kill the roots.
   Common Lilacs stand out now in the landscape because they are still green, as do mulberry trees, the white mulberry Morus alba, being of Asian origin,  and Morus rubra being native further south in North America.  It should be noted that  green leaves late in the fall does not necessarily mean  a woody plant is unhardy.