Invasive plants in Massachusetts are governed by one of the most comprehensive state-level bans in the country, and according to UMass Amherst’s Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources bans the importation and sale of more than 140 plants identified as either noxious or invasive across the Commonwealth. That authority comes from Massachusetts General Law Chapter 128, and the ban is notably strict in scope, since it covers every cultivar, variety, and hybrid of a listed species rather than just the original wild form.
That list is also a genuinely living document, actively maintained by the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group, a collaborative body of public and private stakeholders that’s been recommending additions since 1999. The most recent update happened remarkably recently: according to a Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources memo dated December 2025, the state added black alder, Chinese silvergrass, and jetbead to the Prohibited Plant List following a public hearing and comment period, with each species reviewed against scientific evidence before approval.
Earlier additions followed the same careful process with a real financial consideration built in. According to a Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources memo from November 2022, when Scotch broom, weeping lovegrass, and Japanese black pine were added to the list, each species received its own phase-out schedule so nurseries could sell off existing stock, with Japanese black pine given until December 31, 2025 to clear inventory while Scotch broom’s importation ban took effect immediately given the more severe threat it posed. What follows covers 30 invasive plants in Massachusetts, along with where each one grows and the data behind its spread.
Scotch Broom
Scotch broom produces bright yellow, pea-like flowers on a dense, woody shrub added to the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List in November 2022 with an immediate importation ban given the severity of the threat it posed. Its seeds remain viable in the soil for decades, allowing infestations to persist and resprout long after visible plants have been removed.
It grows in scattered locations throughout Massachusetts, particularly along disturbed roadsides and sandy coastal habitat.
Weeping Lovegrass
Weeping lovegrass produces fine, arching foliage on a fast-spreading ornamental grass added to Massachusetts’s Prohibited Plant List alongside Scotch broom in 2022. Its rapid self-seeding lets it establish well beyond any intended planting within just a couple of growing seasons.
It grows in scattered locations throughout the state, favoring disturbed, sunny roadside habitat.
Japanese Black Pine
Japanese black pine, a popular coastal ornamental conifer, was designated likely invasive and added to Massachusetts’s Prohibited Plant List in 2022, with sales permitted through December 31, 2025 to allow nurseries to sell existing stock. Its salt tolerance made it a favorite for coastal landscaping before its invasive seeding potential was documented.
It grows in scattered coastal locations throughout Massachusetts, where its wind-dispersed seeds can establish in nearby dune and shoreline habitat.
Black Alder
Black alder, also called European alder, was added to the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List in December 2025 following review by the Massachusetts Invasive Plant Advisory Group. It forms dense, often multi-stemmed thickets along wet ground, displacing native wetland species by closing off the open, sunny habitat many of them depend on.
It grows in scattered wetland and streamside locations throughout Massachusetts, tolerating consistently saturated soil that few other invasive trees can survive in.
Chinese Silvergrass
Chinese silvergrass, also called Japanese silver grass or eulalia, was added to the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List in December 2025 after being designated invasive by state reviewers. It produces tall, arching clumps of narrow foliage topped with feathery, silvery-pink plumes, widely sold as an ornamental before its capacity to self-seed into surrounding fields became a documented concern.
It grows in scattered naturalized populations throughout Massachusetts, forming dense stands that displace native meadow grasses and wildflowers.
Jetbead
Jetbead, also called white kerria or black jetbead, was added to the Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List in December 2025 as a likely invasive species. It produces white flowers followed by clusters of small, glossy black fruit on a dense, arching shrub that spreads readily via bird-dispersed seed.
It grows in scattered naturalized populations throughout parts of Massachusetts, forming dense understory thickets in disturbed woodland.
Purple Loosestrife
Purple loosestrife, identified by UMass Extension as one of the most common invasive plants in Massachusetts, produces tall spikes of vivid magenta-purple flowers each summer, a display so attractive that it was originally introduced to gardens before its aggressive wetland behavior became apparent. A single mature plant can produce well over a million seeds in a season.
It grows throughout marshes and wetland margins statewide, forming dense monocultures that crowd out the native plants waterfowl depend on.
Japanese Knotweed
Japanese knotweed produces hollow, bamboo-like stems that can push through cracks in pavement and foundations as a colony expands, spreading through an extensive underground rhizome network. Even a small fragment of rhizome left in the soil can regenerate an entirely new colony the following season.
It grows in scattered infestations throughout Massachusetts, particularly along riverbanks, roadsides, and disturbed urban lots.
Japanese Barberry
Japanese barberry produces small, oval leaves and bright red berries on a dense, spiny shrub originally valued for its ornamental foliage and deer resistance. Research has linked dense barberry thickets to higher populations of ticks carrying Lyme disease, since the humid microclimate beneath the shrub favors both tick survival and their small mammal hosts.
It grows throughout woodlands and forest edges across Massachusetts, forming dense stands that few native plants can successfully compete against.
Multiflora Rose
Multiflora rose produces arching, thorny canes lined with clusters of small white flowers, forming dense, nearly impassable thickets wherever it’s left unmanaged. A single mature shrub can produce close to 500,000 seeds in a year, widely dispersed by birds through fall and winter.
It grows throughout pastures, fence rows, and forest edges statewide, despite once being recommended for erosion control and living fences.
Oriental Bittersweet
Oriental bittersweet produces a woody, twining vine capable of climbing 60 feet or more into a tree canopy, eventually girdling and killing its host through a combination of constriction and accumulated weight. Its bright orange-yellow seed capsules split open in fall to reveal striking red seeds, a display that’s ironically helped spread the vine further since it remains popular for autumn wreaths.
It grows throughout forest edges and disturbed woodland across Massachusetts, increasingly displacing the considerably less aggressive American bittersweet native to the same region.
Autumn Olive
Autumn olive produces bright green leaves that are distinctively silver underneath, with strongly fragrant cream to pale yellow flowers each spring. Because it fixes atmospheric nitrogen through its root system, it can alter soil chemistry in ways that favor its own continued spread over native vegetation.
It grows throughout old fields, roadsides, and disturbed ground statewide, and its abundant, easily dispersed berries have made it one of the more difficult shrubs to eliminate once established.
Russian Olive
Russian olive produces narrow, silvery-gray leaves and small, hard, olive-shaped fruit, closely related to autumn olive but distinguished by longer, narrower foliage. It reproduces both by seed and by root sprouting, with fruit readily dispersed by numerous bird species.
It grows throughout Massachusetts, particularly along riverbanks and disturbed open ground.
Amur Honeysuckle
Amur honeysuckle leafs out earlier in spring and holds its leaves later into fall than most native shrubs, giving it a considerable head start in competing for available sunlight. Its abundant red berries are readily eaten and spread by birds, allowing new infestations to establish well beyond any original planting.
It grows throughout woodland edges and disturbed areas statewide, often forming dense understory thickets that block light from native tree seedlings.
Morrow’s Honeysuckle
Morrow’s honeysuckle closely resembles its Amur relative in small white, fading-to-yellow flowers and prolific red berries, distinguished by slightly hairier leaves and stems. Both species readily hybridize where their ranges overlap.
It grows throughout woodland edges and disturbed areas across much of Massachusetts.
Tatarian Honeysuckle
Tatarian honeysuckle produces pink to white flowers and red berries similar to its bush honeysuckle relatives, distinguished by smoother, hairless leaves. Its dense, multi-stemmed growth habit crowds out native shrubs wherever it establishes.
It grows throughout disturbed woodlands and fence rows across Massachusetts.
Garlic Mustard
Garlic mustard produces small clusters of white, 4-petaled flowers atop a biennial plant whose roots release chemicals into the surrounding soil that actively suppress the germination of nearby native plants. A single mother plant can produce thousands of seeds that remain viable in the soil for years.
It grows throughout wooded areas across Massachusetts, threatening spring ephemerals that can’t compete with its early, aggressive growth.
Common Buckthorn
Common buckthorn leafs out earlier in spring and holds its leaves later into fall than most native trees, giving it a considerable competitive advantage over the forest species it displaces. Its small, dark berries have a noticeable laxative effect on the birds that eat them, which paradoxically helps disperse its seeds.
It grows extensively throughout woodlands and fence rows across Massachusetts.
Glossy Buckthorn
Glossy buckthorn closely resembles common buckthorn but favors wetter ground and lacks the thorns typically found at its close relative’s branch tips. Its berries ripen through a progression of red to purple to black on the same plant simultaneously.
It grows throughout wet woodlands and swamp margins across Massachusetts.
Norway Maple
Norway maple closely resembles the native sugar maple at a glance, distinguished most reliably by the milky sap that oozes from a broken leaf stem, a trait sugar maple entirely lacks. It casts notably dense shade that suppresses the growth of native wildflowers and tree seedlings beneath its canopy.
It grows throughout much of Massachusetts, planted extensively as a street tree before its invasive tendencies in natural forest settings became fully understood.
Tree of Heaven
Tree of heaven produces large, compound leaves and grows remarkably fast even by invasive tree standards, with root sprouts capable of reaching several feet in their very first year alone. Its rapid, suckering growth makes it notoriously difficult to eliminate through cutting alone.
It grows throughout much of Massachusetts, particularly along roadsides and disturbed urban lots, and it also serves as the preferred host plant for the invasive spotted lanternfly.
English Ivy
English ivy is an evergreen climbing and groundcover vine that spreads via both seed and rooting stems, planted for decades as low-maintenance landscaping before its invasive woodland behavior became widely recognized. Once a vine climbs high enough into full sun, its leaf shape changes from the familiar lobed juvenile form to a simpler, unlobed adult leaf capable of flowering and fruiting.
It grows throughout much of Massachusetts as both a cultivated groundcover and an escaped woodland invasive.
Wintercreeper
Wintercreeper is an evergreen, woody vine with aerial roots that let it climb into tree canopies, forming dense carpets on the forest floor that can overtop and shade out the trees it grows beneath. Its waxy leaves make it notably difficult to control even with herbicide application.
It grows throughout residential landscapes and adjacent woodlands statewide, having escaped widely from ornamental groundcover plantings.
Burning Bush
Burning bush, prized for its intensely saturated red fall foliage, produces distinctive corky, wing-like ridges along its stems that make it identifiable even without leaves. It’s included on Massachusetts’s Prohibited Plant List despite once being one of the most commonly planted foundation shrubs in the state.
It grows in scattered naturalized populations throughout Massachusetts, spreading via bird-dispersed seed into forest understories.
Mile-a-Minute Vine
Mile-a-minute vine produces small clusters of tiny white flowers followed by distinctive metallic blue berries on a trailing, barbed vine capable of growing several inches per day. Its seeds can remain dormant in the soil for up to 6 years.
It grows in scattered locations throughout Massachusetts, favoring moist soil and full sun along forest edges, wetlands, and streambanks.
Water Chestnut
Water chestnut produces floating rosettes of triangular, serrated leaves atop underwater stems, forming dense surface mats capable of covering an entire pond within a few growing seasons. Its sharp, spiny seed pods can wash up on shore and cause painful puncture wounds to bare feet.
It grows throughout ponds and slow-moving waterways across Massachusetts, considered one of the state’s most aggressively managed aquatic invasive species given how completely it can cover a water body’s surface.
Phragmites
Phragmites, referring specifically to the invasive non-native lineage of common reed, forms dense, towering stands reaching 15 feet or more, displacing native wetland vegetation across huge areas of Massachusetts marshes and shorelines. It spreads both by seed and by an extensive rhizome network.
It grows throughout wetlands and shorelines across the state, forming monocultures so dense that almost nothing else can grow beneath the towering canopy it creates.
Giant Hogweed
Giant hogweed produces enormous, deeply lobed leaves and a thick, hollow stem marked with distinctive purple blotches, capable of towering well over head height. Its sap contains compounds that react violently with sunlight on exposed skin, causing severe burns and blistering that can take months to fully heal.
It grows in scattered, closely monitored infestations in parts of Massachusetts, and residents are actively encouraged to report suspected sightings rather than attempt removal without proper protective equipment.
Porcelain Berry
Porcelain berry produces small, inconspicuous greenish-white flower clusters followed by strikingly colored blue, purple, and turquoise berries on an aggressively twining vine. Its vigorous growth can smother shrubs and small trees within just a few growing seasons.
It grows throughout parts of Massachusetts, particularly along forest edges and disturbed ground.
Yellow Iris
Yellow iris, also called yellow flag iris, produces showy yellow flowers on an aquatic and wetland perennial that forms dense, thick rhizome mats along shorelines. Every part of the plant is toxic if ingested, and its dense growth can alter natural water flow in the wetlands it invades.
It grows throughout marshes, ditches, and pond edges across Massachusetts, displacing native cattails and other wetland vegetation.
Conclusion
Invasive plants in Massachusetts can spread through forests, wetlands, fields, roadsides, gardens, and other habitats. They may compete with native plants for sunlight, water, nutrients, and space, and some species can change the structure of local ecosystems.
Learning to identify invasive plants is an important step in preventing their spread. Early detection and regular monitoring can make management easier, particularly when new populations are found before they become widely established.
Protecting Massachusetts’ native vegetation requires continued attention from homeowners, gardeners, land managers, and local communities. Choosing non-invasive plants, preventing the movement of seeds and plant material, and managing established populations can help maintain healthy and diverse habitats across the state.