Family: Rosaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Broad climate suitability
  
• Naturalized across North America
  
• Can grow in subtropical climates
  
• Invades disturbed areas
  
• Thorny
  
• Potentially allelopathic
  
• Seeds contain a small amount of cyanide – risk of accidental poisoning
  
• Tolerates many soil conditions (and potentially able to exploit many different habitat types)
  
• Can form dense, thorny thickets
  
• Hybridizes with other cultivars and species and increases invasiveness
  
• Can spread vegetatively by root suckering
  
• Fleshy-fruited; Seeds dispersed by birds and mammals
  
• Seeds persist in the soil; forms a seed bank
  
• Tolerates cutting and fires

Low Risk Traits:

• Foliage palatable to deer and other browsing animals
  
• Relatively Shade-intolerant
  
• Self-incompatible
  
• Landscaping and ornamental value
  
• Herbicides may provide effective control