The Invasive Plants Association of Wisconsin (IPAW) is a nonprofit membership-based organization whose mission is to promote better stewardship of the natural resources of Wisconsin by advancing the understanding of invasive plants, preventing their introduction, and encouraging the control of their spread.

IPAW defines an invasive plant as one that invades native plant communities and impacts those native communities by displacing or replacing native vegetation.

Both a weed and an invasive plant are plants out of place, but an invasive plant encroaches into forests, roadsides, and prairies where it is unchecked by the devotions of an obsessive backyard gardener. The ramifications of invasive plants are so much more ominous than that of weeds because they can and do destroy the natural diversity of native vegetation.

Ironically, many invasive plants get their foothold through well-meaning gardeners who introduce the species as a lovely accent to their patch of paradise. However, many of these plants come from foreign lands and do not have the natural controls that a native plant has. Soon the nonnative plant takes over – first the garden and then, by propagating via the wind, through deep-set runners and by the cooperation of willing birds carrying the seeds, more distant places.

There are many plants that are invasive in Wisconsin. To ease you into an awareness of invasive plants without overwhelming you, IPAW has developed this list of Wisconsin’s Worst foreign invaders.