Avoid exotic, invasive plants like Oriental bittersweet and multiflora rose. These plants may have attractive berries, but they can cause severe damage to native plants, shrubs, and trees.
MassWildlife: Avoid decorating with invasive plants
During the holiday season, many people use plants to decorate their homes or businesses. If you wish to use plants in your decorations, be sure to select native species such as native pines, spruces, hemlock, American holly, mountain laurel, fir, or winterberry holly.
Avoid exotic, invasive plants like Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora). These plants may have attractive berries, but they can cause severe damage to native plants, shrubs, and trees. Invasive plants can spread quickly in open fields, forests, wetlands, meadows, and backyards, crowding out native plants that provide valuable wildlife habitat. Oriental bittersweet can even kill mature trees. Cutting and moving these invasive plants to make wreaths or garland can spread their seeds even more. Birds may also feed on the fruits hung for decoration and further spread the digested but still-viable seeds. Both plants are extremely difficult to control; when cut, the remaining plant segment in the ground will re-sprout and grow quickly. It is illegal to import or sell bittersweet and Multiflora rose in any form (plants or cuttings) in Massachusetts.
Get tips to identify Oriental bittersweet and multiflora rose below or click here to learn more about invasive plants in Massachusetts.
Oriental Bittersweet
Identification: A climbing deciduous, woody vine that can grow up to 60 feet long and up to 6 inches in diameter. It can also grow along the ground spreading orange-colored roots. Young stems are brown with warty lenticels (raised pores); bark of older plants appears gray. New twig growth is smooth and green. Leaves are rounded and are narrower at the base. Small greenish flowers bloom from May to June. Yellow-orange capsules are produced from July to October. Later in the fall, the seed covering splits open to reveal red-orange seeds.
Threat: Oriental bittersweet grows fast and wraps around nearby shrubs or trees. Native woody plants can be shaded out, strangled, or uprooted. It can reproduce by seed or through root suckers.
Multiflora Rose
Identification: A deciduous shrub with arching and scrambling stems that may grow up to 10–15 feet tall. The stems are red to green with scattered, broad-based prickles. Each leaf has 5–11 elliptical leaflets with sharply serrated edges. After the flowers fade in late summer, rose hips (resembling leathery red berries) are left on the plant and remain throughout the winter.
Threat: Multiflora rose grows in dense thickets and quickly outcompetes other plants. It can completely dominate abandoned fields or pastures. Each plant can produce half a million seeds and these may remain viable in the soil for up to 20 years.
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Multiple Departments Respond to Lanesborough Structure Fire
By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — Multiple fire departments responded to a structure fire off Narragansett Avenue on Wednesday afternoon.
The Fire Department received a call from the owner of 6 Bangor St. reporting a smoke and flames at around 1:44 p.m.
Firefighters arriving on scene reported heavy smoke emanating from the the 1940s single-family ranch home in the thickly settle neighborhood.
The blaze was brought under control in less than an hour and there were no civilian or firefighter injuries.
"The homeowner was outside doing some work, evidently, opened the door when she came back in the house, and there were flames and smoke, so she backed out and called us, and that's all we know right now," Deputy Fire Chief Glen Storie said around 2:35 p.m.
The fire was out at that time, and first responders observed "quite a bit of damage" to the home. The cause is still under investigation.
Lanesborough, Cheshire, and Pittsfield departments responded to the scene, and Hancock covered the station during the call.
"The first crew in knocked the fire right down with the first engine," Storie said.
Smoke could be seen coming from the back of the home. Part of Narragansett Avenue and Bangor Avenue were blocked off while firefighters battled the blaze.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and General Electric last week held a public hearing at Herberg Middle School for the Reach 5A Final Design and Restoration Plan, which details remediation efforts for the Pittsfield stretch of the Housatonic River.
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Town meeting on Tuesday approved an almost $14 million fiscal 2027 budget, and approved bylaws for short-term rentals and signage, and for public safety vehicles.
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On Tuesday, the School Building Needs Commission heard an update from the owner's project manager, Skanska, and endorsed a draft schedule that runs from 2026 to 2032.
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Late last month, the Conservation Commission greenlit some tree pruning on the property. New windows and a new door can be seen in the front of the building.
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