In March 2024, Switzerland’s Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) announced a sales ban on a list of 32 exotic invasive plants. From 1 September 2024, it will be illegal to sell these plants in Switzerland.
Like all living things, plants have evolved to survive in specific environments. As humans have moved they have taken plants with them and upset the ecological balance by moving plants to places the plants haven’t evolved to inhabit. In new environments, many of these plants have wrought havoc on native ecosystems. Many of Switzerland’s problem plants come from North America, Asia, Africa and even New Zealand and Australia.
Not all of the plants on the list are planted in Swiss parks or gardens. Some are weeds. There are two lists: one of plants that it is illegal to plant (22 plants) and one of plants that are illegal to sell (32 plants).
The most commonly used garden plants that can no longer be sold include the mimosa, Cotoneaster horizontalis, lupin, Virginia creeper, cherry laurel/common laurel and the Chinese windmill palm. The first three are common flowers, the Virginia creeper is sometimes used to cover walls, the laurel is commonly used as a hedge because it does not lose its leaves in winter, and the Chinese windmill palm is common in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino, where it grows well. The palm is sometimes referred to as the Ticino palm. Researchers at WSL have studied the tree and found that it crowds out native Alpine plants, replacing them with a tree with shallow roots that offers little protection against erosion. Their leaves can also increase the risk of fire.
The full list of plants that it is illegal to plant in Switzerland includes: the Chinese tree of heaven, ragweed, milkweed/butterfly flower, Carolina fanwort, Chinese bittersweet, New Zealand pigmyweed, Waterweeds (Elodea), giant hogweed, Japanese hops, floating pennywort, Himalayan balsam, South African oxygen weed, water primrose, water milfoil, East Asian arrowroot, knotweed, staghorn sumac, giant salvinia, narrow-leaved ragwort, star-cucumber, goldenrods and eastern poison ivy.
The full list of plants that it is illegal to sell includes: mimosa, false indigo-bush, Chinese mugwort, New York aster, water fern, paper mulberry, Turkish rocket, red osier, Cotoneaster horizontalis, wild cucumber/prickly cucumber, eastern daisy fleabane, goat’s-rue, fowl mannagrass, vine honeysuckle, Japanese honeysuckle, lupine, Java waterdropwort, Virginia creeper, princess tree/foxglove-tree, crimson fountaingrass, fishpole bamboo, cherry laurel/common laurel, wild black cherry, arrow bamboo, Himalayan blackberry, Japanese wineberry, duck-potato, two-row stonecrop, butterwort and the Chinese windmill palm.
More on this:
FOEN article (in French) – Take a 5 minute French test now
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