a smithie's field guide

Cultivated as an ornamental and to prevent erosion. Forms dense thickets that invade pastures and crowd out native species.

Fast growth rate, known to escape from cultivation and naturalize in minimally managed areas.

An established planting of honeysuckle is capable of engulfing small trees and shrubs, causing their collapse. Shading of plants in the understory can also occur, choking out many native species

Very thick roots, fast spreading, really hard to remove. Easy to remember. 

Has an ability to establish itself in woodlands, forests, fields, roadsides and disturbed areas where, if conditions are favorable, it will out-compete native plants to form dense thickets.

Rapid growth, vigorous growing habits, showy-edible fruits and attractive appearance. Trunks and branches have sharp thorns.

Fast growing vines can cover, shade and outcompete other vegetation. It can even girdle and kill large trees.

Plants spread slowly by creeping roots. Plants can also spread by self-seeding (birds will eat the fruits and distribute the seed). Plant branches may root where they touch the ground.

Yellow color in the fall. Valued as an ornamental in North America but in new england it outcompetes the Sugar Maple.

EHS and HWA affecting populations across the eastern united states. This summer I went to an old growth hemlock forest in Michigan. It was pretty surreal. 

Scale-like, aromatic, yellow-green to green foliage appears in flattened sprays. Red-brown bark will exfoliate on mature branches and trunks.

Each fruit has a single seed almost completely surrounded by a fleshy red aril. All parts of this plant are poisonous if ingested.

Rhododrendrons ARE azaleas, but usually in garden stores and nurseries (according to the internet) the plants called Rhododendron are usually evergreen and those labeled Azalea plants are deciduous

Specific epithet in Greek means cone but it may also refer to an incense-bearing or gum-yielding tree.

Specific epithet means small flowers.

It features drooping clusters of lily-of-the-valley-like white flowers in early spring.

Genus name is reportedly derived from the Latin word pix meaning pitch in reference to the sticky resin typically found in spruce bark. Specific epithet means sharp-pointed in reference to the needles.