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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Pittsfield Committee Recommends Scanlon for City Audit
By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires.com
PITTSFIELD, Mass.— After the bid for a new auditing company came back more than 30 percent higher, Pittsfield will stick with Scanlon and Associates.
On Tuesday, the Auditing Services Evaluation Committee voted, 4-2, to advance Scanlon to the City Council for an independent audit. CliftonLarsonAllen also responded to the bid, but came in costing $120,000 more.
“I have to go with saving money for the city. I mean, the discrepancy is too much of a difference,” committee member Karen Kalinowsky said.
“The city could have used for that difference over the next three years.”
This process was prompted by Rule 40 of the council rules and the City Charter, where in any year the City Council votes to hold a procurement process for an independent certified public accountant or firm to audit Pittsfield's books and accounts, the city must, through its Finance Committee with the assistance of the purchasing department, solicit requests for proposals or invitations for bids before June 1.
The council in March recommended that the purchasing agent draft a request for proposals and put it out to bid.
Ward 1 Councilor Kenneth Warren, who has vocally supported the independent audit for years, said the city doesn’t have to follow a bidding process for the professional service, “We are doing this so the public knows that we're being professional and are looking for other options, looking at what the best options are, and comparing them based on what they can offer and what the cost is.”
Board member Kathy Amuso said both CLA and Scanlon have comparable reviews with high recommendations. Especially considering the budget crisis Pittsfield is in, she moved to recommend Scanlon to the full council.
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