Prohibited Beauty

Purple Loosestrife is on Maine's "Do Not Sell Plant List". This means it is "illegal to import, export, buy, sell or intentionally propagate for sale or distribution in Maine." Maine's Invasive Plants

It really is a very beautiful plant, which has contributed to its spread, I guess, as homeowners are reluctant to remove such a prolific and easy-to-care-for beauty from their garden beds. The petals have such a delicate papery-thin look to them. 

The plant establishes easily on roadside edges, ditches, shorelines and wetlands, where it aggressively outcompetes our native wetland plants. Non-native plants are not as beneficial to the long-term health and reproduction of our pollinator insects.

Once it takes root, though, it's very difficult to remove, so do try and remove them before they're established. If you don't manage to pull up the entire root ball, you will have to go back and monitor for regrowth. They can be disposed of by enclosing them in a black bag and then dumped into the trash can.

I've been finding many growing wild along shorelines of Lake Arrowhead this summer.

See Most unwanted plant in Maine