How do invasive plants get into natural areas?
California’s wildlands are new territory for these plants, and they don’t have the predators that normally limit their growth in their home environment. This allows them to proliferate, spread, and overtake natural habitat. Each invasive plant has its own strategy for growth and dispersal. Some have seeds that are spread by the wind, like pampas grass, whose seeds can be blown up to two miles away. Others have seeds that are carried by water or eaten by birds and animals that deposit them far from the parent plant. There are also species that reproduce vegetatively, like Arundo that sprouts new shoots from fallen stalks.
