Family: Celastraceae

High Risk Traits:

• Temperate vine (marginal in subtropics)
  
• Broad climate suitability (in temperate areas)
  
• Widely naturalized
  
• Forestry weed
  
• An environmental weed
  
• With spines
  
• Potentially allelopathic
  
• Unpalatable to browsing animals
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Shade-tolerant
  
• Overtops and smothers other vegetation and can form thickets in open areas
  
• Bird and mammal dispersed seeds
  
• Fruits buoyant and capable of being water-dispersed
  
• Spreads vegetatively from rhizomes
  
• Reaches maturity in 2+ years
  
• Tolerates and resprouts after repeated cutting

Low Risk Traits:

• Temperate climate; may only be a threat to higher elevation areas in tropical islands
  
• Valued as an ornamental
  
• Not known to form a persistent seed bank
  
• Herbicides may provide effective control