Family: Acanthaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Thrives in tropical climates
  
• Escaped, and possibly naturalized on Oahu (Hawaiian Islands); widely naturalized elsewhere
  
• An environmental weed in Australia, competing with native vegetation
  
• Other Barleria species are invasive
  
• Armed with spines at leaf axils
  
• Allelopathic
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Forms dense thickets that exclude other vegetation
  
• Reproduces by seeds and vegetatively by stem fragments
  
• Seeds dispersed short distances when capsules rupture, by water, and intentionally planted by people
  
• Also dispersed by dumped garden waste
  
• Tolerates cutting and fire

Low Risk Traits:

• Cultivated in Hawaiian Islands since 1950, but only reported to be escaped on Oahu
  
• Non-toxic
  
• Valued as an ornamental
  
• Herbicides may provide effective control