Introduced Species

Our “Native” Habitat

Whenever we drive by a marsh, field, meadow, or forest, we don’t think much about the fact that, often, much of the environment we are looking at was not there three centuries ago.  I am not referring to the age of the specific plants that you see, such as the years old ‘weed’, decades old shrub, and even one or two centuries old tree.  What I am referring to is that the plants that are now inhabiting much of this local ecology are not native to this region.  Many of them were introduced two or more centuries ago when the settlers redeveloped much of the local lands to meet their needs and planted, either deliberately or accidentally numerous types of livestock feed, agricultural crops, garden decoratives, shade trees, and the seed-ridden hides and rubbish left over from the newly imported cattle and sheep.    Today, these plants that were imported are often considered ‘weeds’ and judged to be introduced, naturalized, and adventitious escapees that have taken to the wild, much to environmentalists dismay.  Others we simply consider “natives” with nice looking flowers or an ability to add color to the local postoral setting.  

A number of these plants appear in Jane Colden’s manuscript on the local plants and herbs.  Some were introduced before her father Cadwallader came to this country.  Others were possibly introduced by her neighbors during her lifetime.  Still others, she and her father may have allowed to escape and take to the wild in the local environment.  The there were these few plants that were already introduced as established as natural inhabitants of this area, years before the Dutch settled in this reason.  Some were brought in by early explorers from the previous French, Spanish and Portuguese ships to make their way through this region.  There is even the chance that a select few of these plants came in due to much earlier Viking and Russian explorations of the northeast portion of North America.  Jane makes mention of plants that fit nearly all of these possible avenues of migration into North America.

The following plants have some sort of natural history related to their introduction into the New World (listed roughly in chronological order).  Those noted in Jane’s work are in bold, those with a certain amount of uncertainty in italics:

  • Plantain (Plantago majus)
  • Prickly Pear, various species (Opuntia spp.) [New Spain]
  • Morning Glories (Ipomoea spp., esp. coccinea, hederacea, pes-caprae, purpurea) [New Spain]
  • Yucca (Yucca sp.) [New Spain?]
  • English Plantain (Plantago lanceolatus)
  • Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota)
  • Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
  • Chickweed (Stellaria media)
  • Mouse-ear Chickweed (Cerastium fontanum)
  • Campions (Silene spp., esp. latifolia (White) and vulgaris (Bladder))
  • Red Clover (Trifolium pratense)
  • White Clover (Trifolium repens)
  • Hops clover (Trifolium aureum)
  • Rabbitfoot Clover (Trifolium arvense)
  • Hybrid of Red and White Clovers (Trifolium hybridum)
  • Sweet Clover, Yellow and White (Melilotus officinalis and Melilotus alba)
  • Birdsfoot Trefoil (Lotus corniculata)
  • Crown Vetch (Vicia cracca)
  • Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
  • Chicory (Cichorium intybus)
  • Burdock (Arctium lappa)
  • Common Wintercress (Barbarea vulgaris)
  • Black Mustard (Brassica nigra)
  • Corn Cockle (Agrostemma githago)
  • Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
  • Moth mullein (Verbascum blattaria)
  • Heal All (Prunella vulgaris)
  • Lemon Balm (Melissa officinalis)
  • Spearmint (Mentha spicata)
  • Peppermint (Mentha piperita)
  • Spearmint-Peppermint hybrid (Mentha “hybridum”)
  • Catnip (Nepeta cataria)
  • Motherwort (Leonurus cardiaca)
  • Ground Ivy (Glechoma hederacea)
  • Henbit (Lamium amplexicaule)
  • Common Mallows, various species (especially Malva neglecta, rotundifolia)
  • Wild Mustard (Brassica nigra)
  • Some Peppergrasses (esp. Lepidium campestre and perfoliatum)
  • Watercress (Rorippa nasturtium-aquaticum)
  • Common Buttercup (Ranunculus acris)
  • Purslane (Portulacca americana)
  • Wild Lettuce (Lactuca sativa)
  • Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)
  • Oxeye Daisy (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum)
  • Purple Vetch (Vicia sp.)
  • Crown Vetch (Coronilla varia)
  • Common St. John’s Wort (Hypericum perforatum, and other species, some are local natives and were not introduced)
  • Sheep Sorrels  (Rumex acetosa and R. acetosella)
  • Bedstraws, various species (but not all) (Galium spp., esp. Galium mollugo (wild madder))
  • Lady’s Thumb (Polygonum persicaria)
  • Curly Dock (Rumex crispus)
  • Bitter Dock (Rumex obtusifolius)
  • Amaranths, various species (Amaranthus spp.)
  • Lamb’s Quarters, various species (Chenopodium spp.)
  • Common barberry (Berberis vulgaris)
  • Teasel (Dipsacus fullonum)
  • Celandine Poppy (Chelidonium majus)
  • Bittersweet Nightshade (Solanum dulcamara)
  • Black nightshade (Solanum nigra) [introduced?]
  • Apple (Malus spp.)
  • Cherry, various (Prunus spp.)
  • Jimsonweed (Datura stramonium) [from Virginia]
  • White Prickly Poppy (Argemone albiflora) [from New Spain]

A number of other plants common to the Hudson Valley area were possibly brought in well after the Colden Era in local plant natural history.  These are also very common plants that we take for granted as “natives”, even though they are not. 

  • Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petoliata.  National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers – Eastern has the introduction year identified as 1868.)
  • Smooth Brome (Bromus inermis) [1880]
  • Downy Brome (Bromus tectorum) [very early 1800s]
  • Barnyard Grass [Echinochloa crussgalli) [very early 1800s]
  • Little Barley (Hordeum pulsatilla)
  • Timothy (Phleum pratense)
  • Whitlow Grass (Draba verna)
  • Bulbous Buttercup (Ranunculus bulbosus)
  • Caltrop (Tribulus terrestris)
  • Periwinkle (Vinca minor)
  • Soapwort (Saponaria officinalis) 
  • Butter and Eggs (Linaria vulgaris)
  • Muskflower (Mimulus moschata) [introduced , escaped from gardens?]
  • Cuckoo Flower (Lychnis flos-cuculi)
  • Dayflower (Commelina communis)
  • Pinks (Dianthus armeria)
  • Hairy Vetch (Vicia villosa)
  • Rough-fruited Cinquefoil (Potentialla recta)
  • Multiflowered Rosa (Rosa multiflora)
  • Burnet (Sanguisorba canadensis) [from Europe, via New France]
  • Storksbill (Erodium cicutarium)
  • Musk’s Storksbill (Erodium moschatum)
  • Herb Robert (Geranium robertianum)
  • Sage (Salvia coccinea)
  • Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia)
  • Garden Loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata)
  • Velvet Leaf (Abutilon theophrasti) [Possibly an early introduction, according to Cadwallader Colden’s listing]
  • Musk Mallow (Malva moschata)
  • Liveforever (Sedum purpureum)
  • Tree of Heaven (Ailanthus glandulosa)
  • English or Silver Maple (Acer saccharinum ,vs. Acer saccharum)
  • Black Walnut (Juglans nigra)
  • Catalpa (Catalpa sp.)
  • Tartarian Honeysuckle (Lonicera tartarica)
  • Japanese Honeysuckle(Lonicera japonica)
  • Japanese Bamboo (Polygonum cuspidatum)
  • Sweet Vernal Grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum) [later a Native American tradition]

The plants noted in bold letters above were noted in Jane’s Flora or Cadwallader’s Treatise and were found residing locally.