Picture yourself in your woods. You are in a beautiful bottom filled with straight hardwood trees. When you come out of a bottom to a field, there is a transition zone that almost always has blackberries growing. When foresters are coming out of the woods, we pick the path of least resistance, or rather, the path that will leave us with the fewest briar marks. In other words, we do have expectations of a certain amount of briars pulling on our clothes and skin.

After being in the woods 25 years or so, we usually do not get fooled on our exits back out into a field, but one day, Mike Davis did get fooled! On his way out of the bottom swamp, he picked a path that would be least likely to mar him and yet, he got hit big time with a plant. The plant penetrated his clothing to the point that he stopped and took note of the plant. What was THAT? It looked so familiar but yet he could not recall an answer.

Mike Davis has been to many of my workshops, including the ones that teach non-native invasive species. I believe in training the foresters, timber buyers, loggers and forest landowners because we are the ones most likely to find something that is not native in your woods.

Mike called to ask me about this plant. That afternoon, I met him at an intersection to get a sample from him. Mike was apologetic. “I don’t want to waste your time on something that might not be important.” Two things popped into my mind when he said this. First, I would not know if it was a waste of time until I was sure what it was. And second, he had been in the woods for 25 years or longer. If he had not seen it before, then it was not a native plant. However, was it an invasive plant?

We have many plants in the United States that were brought over from other countries that we use and enjoy. A non-native invasive plant is one that is not native to the United States and grows to the point that it excludes all of the native vegetation. Privet and kudzu are two great examples of non-native invasive plants. Also, non native plants do not have any natural enemies in this country to keep them in check or to control their population.

When I met Mike, I knew one thing. I had no answer for what that thing was! I took it to Calhoun County to see if Charles Davis had seen this thing. Charles said, “Well, one thing is good about it, I can use the thorns to put a wet paper towel around the base and it holds it there.” The thorns are stiff green things over an inch in length.

The total plant is green with leaves made up of three leaflets joined to the stem by a winged petiole.

I took pictures of the plant and e-mailed them out. The answer came back the next day: trifoliate orange. It is the root stock used for grafting orange trees. This should send a red flag up. South Carolina is not known for its orange tree production.

Dr. David Moorhead, extension forest specialist with the University of Georgia, said he had gotten more calls in the past 12 months on this one weed than he had collectively in the years before. He said that it had been popping up all over the South from Mississippi to Georgia. He further stated that a 10-acre patch of trifoliate orange had been discovered in Georgia.

I e-mailed Moorhead about which forest herbicides I had at home and he told me which ones to use to kill it. You see, I believe in stopping the small patches before they get to 10 acres. Ergo, I put my sprayer and herbicides in the back of the truck and met Mike Davis, who then showed me the way to the plants. These seven plants would have blended in but for one thing: the THORNS! (One person cannot stop all of the invasive plants, but each of us trying will slow the spread of these plants.)

What is MOST important is if you do not recognize a plant in your woods, and especially if there is more than one of these strange plants, bring a sample to me or call me. It might be one of those pesky non-native plants that could make your property valueless.

The extension kudzu joke: A client calls one of the 46 county extension offices faced with the fear of kudzu claiming his property. The county agent replied, “Well, the only thing he can do, now, is burn your house down. This joke is at least 25 years old, and yet, it still rings a bit of truth as you look at all the abandoned houses that kudzu has taken.

n Beth Richardson is an agent with the Clemson Extension Service in Orangeburg County.

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