Minnesota Invasive Plants

Stop the spread of invasive species!

Please remember to clean all gear (shoes, 4-wheeler tires, boats, fishing lines, etc.) on the way in and out of natural areas to make sure you’re not spreading anything. Many invasives are tiny—even microscopic—at certain stages in their life cycles.

Check in & out every time with a magnifying glass over invasive species/germs with a slash "not wanted" symbol over the top

The below list of plants links to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources website. Click on the plant name to learn identification, distribution, impacts, management, regulatory status, and native plant alternatives for those species. A booklet-style guide of invasive plants is linked below the table. The asterisk (*) indicates plants where early detection is most important.

Minnesota Invasive Plants (Terrestrial Invasive Species)
Flowering Plants	Grasses
Birdsfoot trefoil	Amur silver grass
Brown, diffuse, and meadow knapweeds*	Reed canary grass
Bull thistle	Smooth brome grass
Butter and eggs
Canada thistle
Common tansy	Trees & Shrubs
Common teasel*	Amur cork tree
Cow vetch and hairy vetch	Amur maple
Creeping Charlie	Autumn olive
Crown vetch or axseed	Black locust
Cut-leaved teasel*	Buckthorn
Dalmatian toadflax*	Japanese barberry
Erect hedge parsley	Multiflora rose
Garlic mustard	Non-native bush honeysuckles
Giant hogweed*	Non-native knotweeds
Grecian foxglove*	Norway maple
Hoary alyssum	Russian olive
Leafy spurge	Siberian elm
Lesser celandine	Siberian peashrub
Musk or nodding thistle	Tree of heaven*
Narrowleaf bittercress*	Winged burning bush
Orange hawkweed
Oxeye daisy
Poison hemlock	Vines
Queen Anne’s lace	Black swallow-wort*
Spotted knapweed	Japanese hops*
White and yellow sweet clover	Oriental bittersweet*
Wild parsnip
Yellow starthistle*

Ramsey County’s Most Invasive Plants

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Minnesota Invasive Plants

Minnesota Invasive Plants

(Terrestrial Invasive Species)

Flowering Plants

Grasses

Trees & Shrubs

Vines

Ramsey County’s Most Invasive Plants