northeast-flora-and-fauna

Here's an invasive species that you'll sometimes see dominating an area, a Japanese Angelica Tree aka Chinese Angelica Tree aka Korean Angelica Tree. (Maybe it would be better to call them Asian Angelica Trees when they span countries like this ... but I'm not authorized to improve the naming convention.) This small tree is obviously crowding out some native plants. Near the Hawk Watch area of Washington Valley Park there's a patch of them where it looks like they're the only things growing there, so I don't dispute the "invasive species" tag they've acquired. Having said that, they are supposed to be very similar to and closely related to a species that's native to southern NJ, western Pennsylvania, and much of the southeastern US, the Devil's Walking Stick  aka Angelica Tree (video here ). AFAIK the Devil's Walking Stick doesn't take over an ecosystem the way Japanese Angelica Trees do, though it's unclear what prevents that ...