Family: Apocynaceae

High Risk Traits:

• Broad climate suitability
  
• Naturalized in areas with tropical climates
  
• Widely naturalized, including Maui, Hawaiian Islands
  
• Yard weed and environmental weed, reducing native plant biodiversity
  
• Vinca minor is also invasive
  
• Relatively unpalatable to browsing and grazing animals
  
• Toxic to animals and potentially toxic, and allergenic to humans
  
• Alternate host of the bacteria causing Pierce's disease, a threat to California's vineyards
  
• Shade-tolerant
  
• Tolerates many soil types
  
• Forms thick mats that smother the ground and low-growing vegetation
  
• Reproduces rapidly by vegetative means
  
• Vegetative fragments spread in garden waste, and by water
  
• Able to resprout after cutting, or fires

Low Risk Traits:

• Unarmed (no spines, thorns or burrs)
  
• Ornamental and medicinal uses
  
• Rarely, if ever, produces seeds in introduced range
  
• Lack of seed production may limit ability to disperse and spread
  
• Certain herbicides may provide effective control