Participate in a Self-Paced Nandina Removal Event From February 23 through March 31, 2025.
Send us a photo of your berry (or whole plant!) removal and drop us a pin as to the location of the removal!
** If you remove Nandina berries you will be entered into a drawing for a gift certificate for one of the alternative red-berry native plants listed below!
** If you remove a whole Nandina plant the City will replace it with one of the alternative red-berry native plants listed below (via gift certificate); one new plant per household.
To participate, email your photo and location pin to hazend [at] mtnbrook.org (hazend[at]mtnbrook[dot]org)!
This Mountain Brook event was inspired by the Jefferson County Greenways (Ruffner, Red Mountain, and Turkey Creek) Self-paced Nandina Removal Program along their trails... thanks!
Nix Nandina
In honor of National Invasive Species Awareness week, (February 24 - 28, 2025) the City of Mountain Brook is focusing on Nandina awareness.
At first glance, Nandina seems ideal. It requires little care, is hardy, and grows in wet and dry soils. To top it all off, the plant's beautiful dark green foliage and bright red berries persist throughout winter, adding a touch of color to an otherwise muted landscape. The showy berries and leaves are often used to accent the holiday spirit of a home landscape for wreaths and other decorations.
For decades, wildlife and garden experts touted Nandina as a great wildlife food plant. One of the seeming virtues was that its berries hung on into winter, providing much-needed food for fruit- and berry-eating birds at a time when food is scarce. We now know that the ripe berries contain cyanide, and can be especially lethal to native birds that gorge on berries, such as the Cedar Waxwing. Other native birds that may become sick from ingesting Nandina berries include the American Mockingbird, the American Robin, and the Eastern Bluebird. The Nandina leaves and unripe berries contain even higher levels of cyanide than the ripe berries, and are also poisonous to cats, dogs and grazing animals.
In addition to being poisonous to birds and other animals, Nandina is crowding out native plants, many of which are vital to native pollinators. The pervasive spread of Nandina is decreasing biodiversity across the southeast as it grows well in disturbed areas, spreads easily through rhizomes and through seed dispersal from animals, escapes cultivation, tolerates a variety of soils and growing conditions, and has no serious insect or disease problems. It grows up to 8 feet tall and forms dense thickets. With its rapid growth, it can replace native plant communities and alter or destroy habitat that provide food and shelter for a variety of wildlife and insects. For all of these reasons, Nandina is considered an Invasive species.
Yet, in spite of this, Nandina is still readily available at many nurseries (ask your local nurseries to cease offering it!). Each one of us can help by spreading the word about Nandina, and we can remove Nandina from our yards. If you can't bring yourself to do so, at the very least, cut off and dispose of the clusters of Nandina berries that appear on your plants each year before the birds find them.
- Quick Nix = Remove Berries
- Better Fix = Whole Plant Removal
How to Collect and Dispose of Nandina
Wear protective gloves when handling Nandina berries and plant material. Put Nandina berries or whole plant in trash bags and dispose along with regular trash. Do not leave berries or plant material on the ground, given that it is toxic to humans, pets, and wildlife; likewise, do not compost Nandina!
Alternative Berry Producing Native Plants:
Winterberry - Serviceberry - Elderberry - Pokeweed - Nannyberry Blackcap Raspberry - Cockspur Hawthorn
Highbush Blueberry - Chokeberry - Mountain Ash "Eastern Promise" - Sumac - Virginia Creeper
Chokecherry Hackberry - American Bittersweet - Eastern Red Cedar - Spicebush
Piedmont Master Gardeners Alternatives to Nandina
Nurture Native Nature Cedar Waxwings Reveal how Pervasive and Destructive Invasive Nandina and Honeysuckle are to Wildlife
