If you’re planting trees or shrubs this fall, Michigan State University Extension has suggestions for what to choose instead of four common landscape plants the state will soon restrict.
Michigan added six species to its invasive plant lists this year. Four of those species will be restricted starting Jan. 1, 2028: common buckthorn, glossy buckthorn, Callery pear, and Japanese barberry. After that date, it will be illegal to sell, import, or intentionally propagate them in the state. Nurseries have until then to phase out production. Property owners who already have these plants aren’t in violation.
Callery pear, including the widely planted Bradford pear, grows fast and is a common street tree, but MSU Extension said it spreads into nearby forests and forms thickets. Japanese barberry is a small, thorny shrub that spreads by seed and by rooting from its stems, which can also form dense thickets that crowd out native plants. Because of its dense growth, MSU Extension also linked barberry to ticks and the risk of Lyme disease.
The Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development published a list of landscape alternatives, including:
- Instead of Callery pear: serviceberry, black gum, eastern redbud, little-leaf linden, green hawthorn, or American smoke tree
- Instead of Japanese barberry: ninebark, black chokeberry, winterberry, bayberry, New Jersey tea, Carolina rose, or fragrant sumac
- Instead of common or glossy buckthorn: American arborvitae, blackhaw viburnum, American hazelnut, buttonbush, elderberry, or northern spicebush
The full lists include other options, such as blood-twig dogwood and vernal witch-hazel, along with alternatives for the water plants. MSU Extension’s complete article is available at canr.msu.edu, and MDARD’s plant alternatives page has more detail.
Source: Michigan State University Extension
