A 



. coastal menace is 

 creeping onto shorelines 

 along the 



Carolinas. 



9} 



r 7 * & 



Like 

 all crafty 

 invaders, this plant 

 travels well, conquers 

 quickly and has a good disguise. 

 Its seeds and broken stems float on 

 ocean currents to root and 

 colonize new areas. It grows 

 rapidly, choking out native 

 plants. And its beguiling 

 purple flowers will turn 

 heads this summer — some 

 out of admiration for its 

 unique blooms, others out 

 of loathing for its tenacious 

 assault on North and South 

 Carolina dunes. 



Nicknamed "Kudzu 

 of the Coast," beach vitex 

 (Vitex rotundifolia) has 

 spread so far and so fast in 

 the Carolinas that experts are 

 pushing to have it listed as a 

 Federal Noxious Weed. 



A deciduous, sprawl- 

 ing shrub native to the 

 western Pacific, beach vitex easily outpaces 

 slower growing natives such as sea oats or the 

 endangered seabeach amaranth, says Dale 

 Suiter, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and 

 Wildlife Service office in Raleigh. "And it may 

 out-compete other rare plants that are 



In 2003, Brabson was 

 called to an unmarked nest in Isle of 

 Palms, S.C., to help some wayward hatchlings 

 confused by condominium lights. Brabson 

 arrived to find a heartbreaking scene: the 

 baby turtles had become tangled in the beach 

 vitex mats. 



"They got all caught up and died because 

 of dehydration," she says. 



^1 



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4q 



not yet listed as threatened 

 or endangered," 



he adds. 



Many sea 

 turtle experts and 

 volunteers also worry 

 about the mat of tangled vines beach 

 vitex forms along the soil. The plant can reach 

 one to two feet in height and 1 2 feet in diam- 

 eter, possibly putting sea turtle hatchlings at risk 

 as they emerge from buried nests. 



Although there are no research studies to 

 document that problem, Betsy Brabson, a South 

 Carolina resident and sea turtle volunteer, has 

 witnessed the threat first hand. 



LEFT: Beach vitex can be identified in the spring and summer by its purple blooms 

 and the spicy, eucalyptus-like scent of its leaves. RIGHT: Birds in North Carolina 

 have been observed eating the fruits of beach vitex, possibly contributing to its spread. 



Saturating the South 



Scientists introduced beach vitex to the 

 southeastern United States from the beaches 

 of Korea in the mid-1980s, believing the plant 

 could help stabilize dunes. 



There is still some debate as to how 

 effectively the plant stabilizes and accomplishes 

 that goal. 



"We know it has some bad habits," says 

 Chuck Gresham, a coastal ecology and forest 

 science researcher from Clemson University. 

 "But we don't know if it is doing the job it was 

 brought here to do." 



Gresham began trials on Pawley's Island, 

 S.C., last fall to measure the recession of vitex- 

 infested dunes versus those covered with native 

 sea oats. 



Based on his conversations with island 

 residents, Gresham speculates most people 

 planted beach vitex there in the early 1990s, 

 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers rebuilt 



NATURALIST'S 



NOTEBOOK 



dunes destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. 

 Sea oats were in short supply, he says, so many 

 opted for beach vitex instead. 



As word traveled about its high salt and 

 drought tolerances, so did the plant. 



To date, no one knows how far beach vitex 

 has spread in the Southeast, says David Nash, 

 the North Carolina coordinator for the Carolinas 

 Beach Vitex Task Force. The task force includes 

 representatives from federal, 

 state and non-profit agencies 

 focused on determining and 

 controlling the spread of 

 beach vitex in the Carolinas. 

 Brabson is the coordinator 

 for South Carolina. 



The plant has shown 

 up as far north as Ocracoke 

 Island, N.C., and as far south 

 as Florida and Alabama, 

 according to the task force. 



In North Carolina, 

 heavy concentrations of the 

 plant are found on Bogue 

 Banks, including Atlantic 

 Beach, Pine Knoll Shores 

 and Emerald Isle. It also is 

 found from Figure Eight 

 Island to Wrightsville Beach, 

 and on Bald Head and Oak islands. 



In South Carolina, most beaches in 

 Georgetown County are saturated with beach 

 vitex, especially Pawley's Island and Litchfield 

 Beach. The plant also is well established in 

 certain areas of Charleston County, including 

 Isle of Palms and Folly Beach. 



Most nurseries in the Carolinas have 

 stopped selling beach vitex, and many munici- 

 palities are trying to contain or eradicate it. 



"Beaches are taking a 'no tolerance' policy 

 toward beach vitex," says Brabson. 



In January, Georgetown County, S.C., 

 passed the first county wide ordinance declaring 

 beach vitex "highly invasive" and "a public 

 nuisance." South Carolina's Folly Beach, Edisto 

 Beach and Pawley's Island also have adopted 

 ordinances regarding beach vitex, as have some 

 North Carolina towns, including Bald Head 

 Island and Caswell Beach. 



Continued 



Coastwalch I Spring 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 27 



