Want to learn to identify some of the most prevalent invasive plants in your community and don’t know where to start?
Try colouring your way to invasive plant identification, one colouring sheet at a time! Invasive plants may not respect lines, but you can sure draw inside them.
These three community-specific colouring sheets are the perfect way to dive into plant ID, for plant detectives of all ages. You can use this page to choose your colours, learn more about the impacts of the invasives you are colouring, and show off your finished masterpiece!
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Lions Bay Invasives
English Holly
Photo credit: K. Newell
ID Characteristics: This evergreen shrub has dark green, glossy leaves with stiff, sharp spines. In the early spring, it has small, white, 4-lobed flowers. This invasive produces small, round, smooth light red or orange berries that are poisonous to humans and pets.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive out-competes native plants by suppressing their germination and drawing out excess water and nutrients from the soil. English Holly also adds organic matter and sulfur to the soil, which makes it difficult for native plants to thrive.
English Ivy
ID Characteristics: This evergreen, woody climbing vine has 2 growth stages: juvenile and mature. In the juvenile stage, it grows as a ground cover, with purple-green stems and lobed leaves. As it matures, the stem becomes brown and woody, it grows vertically up trees, and its leaves become unlobed. Ivy leaves are leathery to the touch, dark green, with distinct veins, and are toxic to humans and animals. English Ivy produces small greenish-yellow flowers in its mature growth stage.
Ecological Impacts: It forms ‘ivy deserts’ or dense monocultures, which threaten native plant communities and vegetation from the forest floor to the canopy. This overwhelms shrubs, trees, and seedlings by adding additional weight, as well as limiting their photosynthesis and water intake.
Common Foxglove
ID Characteristics: Foxglove has bell-shaped flowers that are often pink, purple, or white, that have dark purple spots on the inside. Its leaves form a rosette at the base of the plant and spiral up the stem. The leaves are green and velvet-looing with soft, white hairs covering both sides. The entire plant is highly toxic to humans and animals.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive takes over areas by outcompeting and replacing the native species.
Himalayan Blackberry
Photo Credit: B. Johnson
ID Characteristics: Unlike our native Trailing Blackberry, this invasive is identifiable by large red or green prickles along its stem. Himalayan Blackberry’s leaves are clusters of 3 or 5 egg-shaped, pointed leaflets. In the early summer, it has light pink, 5-petaled flowers. Later in summer, large, shiny, edible blackberries ripen.
Ecological Impacts: Himalayan Blackberry often grows near streams where it infests the banks and increases the risk of erosion. It grows in huge colonies that crowd and shade out native plants and restricts the access of wildlife to waterbodies.
Periwinkle
Photo Credit: B. Brett
ID Characteristics: Periwinkle is an evergreen trailing invasive. Its flowers are pale blue to purple with 5 petals that are arranged in a pinwheel style. Shiny, dark green leaves grow in opposite one another along its stem that trails along the ground.
Ecological Impacts: Periwinkle grows in dense mats on the forest floor that crowd out native species. When it outcompetes native plants with deep roots on riverbanks, its shallow roots do not provide any stability to the banks and therefore run the risk of erosion. This invasive also releases chemicals that inhibit the growth of surrounding plants.
Scotch Broom
ID Characteristics: Scotch Broom can be identified by its small, bright, pea-like yellow flowers, often with a red center. This invasive can reach 1-3 m in height, with rigid, woody, brown-green stems. Its seed pods resemble legumes and they turn from brown to black as they dry out.
Ecological Impacts: Scotch Broom is a forest fire hazard as it grows in dense thickets and contains an oily sap that is flammable. These dense thickets displace native plants and wildlife, as well as limit the movement of larger animals. It can also threaten diversity and disrupt the food chain by altering the nutrients in the soil around it.
Yellow Flag Iris
Photo Credit: CKISS
ID Characteristics: It has the classic iris-looking flowers with 3 drooping, deep yellow sepals and 3 smaller upright petals. Yellow Flag Iris has narrow, flat, sword-like leaves that fan out from the base of the plant.
Ecological Impacts: Yellow Flag Iris actively outcompetes native plant species such as cattails, sedges, and rushes in wetland and riparian habitats. This invasive forms dense mats as it grows in waterways, which trap sediment and thereby choke natural waterways and irrigation canals. In turn, this aquatic invasive deteriorates the natural habitat for many native fish, amphibians, and nesting birds.
Squamish Invasives
English Holly
Photo credit: K. Newell
ID Characteristics: This evergreen shrub has dark green, glossy leaves with stiff, sharp spines. In the early spring, it has small, white, 4-lobed flowers. This invasive produces small, round, smooth light red or orange berries that are poisonous to humans and pets.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive out-competes native plants by suppressing their germination and drawing out excess water and nutrients from the soil. English Holly also adds organic matter and sulfur to the soil, which makes it difficult for native plants to thrive.
English Ivy
ID Characteristics: This evergreen, woody climbing vine has 2 growth stages: juvenile and mature. In the juvenile stage, it grows as a ground cover, with purple-green stems and lobed leaves. As it matures, the stem becomes brown and woody, it grows vertically up trees, and its leaves become unlobed. Ivy leaves are leathery to the touch, dark green, with distinct veins, and are toxic to humans and animals. English Ivy produces small greenish-yellow flowers in its mature growth stage.
Ecological Impacts: It forms ‘ivy deserts’ or dense monocultures, which threaten native plant communities and vegetation from the forest floor to the canopy. This overwhelms shrubs, trees, and seedlings by adding additional weight, as well as limiting their photosynthesis and water intake.
Common Foxglove
ID Characteristics: Foxglove has bell-shaped flowers that are often pink, purple, or white, that have dark purple spots on the inside. Its leaves form a rosette at the base of the plant and spiral up the stem. The leaves are green and velvet-looing with soft, white hairs covering both sides. The entire plant is highly toxic to humans and animals.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive takes over areas by outcompeting and replacing the native species.
Himalayan Blackberry
Photo Credit: B. Johnson
ID Characteristics: Unlike our native Trailing Blackberry, this invasive is identifiable by large red or green prickles along its stem. Himalayan Blackberry’s leaves are clusters of 3 or 5 egg-shaped, pointed leaflets. In the early summer, it has light pink, 5-petaled flowers. Later in summer, large, shiny, edible blackberries ripen.
Ecological Impacts: Himalayan Blackberry often grows near streams where it infests the banks and increases the risk of erosion. It grows in huge colonies that crowd and shade out native plants and restricts the access of wildlife to waterbodies.
Periwinkle
Photo Credit: B. Brett
ID Characteristics: Periwinkle is an evergreen trailing invasive. Its flowers are pale blue to purple with 5 petals that are arranged in a pinwheel style. Shiny, dark green leaves grow in opposite one another along its stem that trails along the ground.
Ecological Impacts: Periwinkle grows in dense mats on the forest floor that crowd out native species. When it outcompetes native plants with deep roots on riverbanks, its shallow roots do not provide any stability to the banks and therefore run the risk of erosion. This invasive also releases chemicals that inhibit the growth of surrounding plants.
Scotch Broom
ID Characteristics: Scotch Broom can be identified by its small, bright, pea-like yellow flowers, often with a red center. This invasive can reach 1-3 m in height, with rigid, woody, brown-green stems. Its seed pods resemble legumes and they turn from brown to black as they dry out.
Ecological Impacts: Scotch Broom is a forest fire hazard as it grows in dense thickets and contains an oily sap that is flammable. These dense thickets displace native plants and wildlife, as well as limit the movement of larger animals. It can also threaten diversity and disrupt the food chain by altering the nutrients in the soil around it.
Yellow Flag Iris
Photo Credit: CKISS
ID Characteristics: It has the classic iris-looking flowers with 3 drooping, deep yellow sepals and 3 smaller upright petals. Yellow Flag Iris has narrow, flat, sword-like leaves that fan out from the base of the plant.
Ecological Impacts: Yellow Flag Iris actively outcompetes native plant species such as cattails, sedges, and rushes in wetland and riparian habitats. This invasive forms dense mats as it grows in waterways, which trap sediment and thereby choke natural waterways and irrigation canals. In turn, this aquatic invasive deteriorates the natural habitat for many native fish, amphibians, and nesting birds.
Whistler Invasives
Common Burdock
ID Characteristics: Common Burdock’s flowers are spherical purple and green burs that mature into brown burs that stick to clothing, hair, and animals. It has large heart-shaped leaves with wavy edges and a hairy underside.
Ecological Impacts: Burdock’s large leaves can shade out and outcompete native plants, leading to biodiversity loss. There are also chemicals released as Burdock grows or decomposes that inhibit the growth of other plants in the area.
Common Foxglove
ID Characteristics: Foxglove has bell-shaped flowers that are often pink, purple, or white, with dark purple spots on the inside. At the base of the plant, the leaves form a rosette before spiralling up the stem. The leaves are green and velvet-looking with soft, white hairs covering both sides. The entire plant is highly toxic to humans and animals.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive takes over areas by outcompeting and replacing the native species.
Knapweed
ID Characteristics: Spotted Knapweed has light purple, aromatic flowers. The bracts of the flowers have black tips, giving them a spotted appearance. This invasive has small, grey-green, fuzzy leaves that grow in an alternate pattern along the stem.
Ecological Impacts: Knapweeds produce chemical compounds that prevent the growth of other plants, therefore displacing native species and threatening biodiversity. Infestations of Knapweed can also increase runoff and erosion.
Lamium
ID Characteristics: This evergreen groundcover has green leaves with silver splotches and a grey outer margin. When in bloom, Lamium produces small, yellow, hooded flowers that rise above the low-growing plant.
Ecological Impacts: Lamium outcompetes native species by blocking sunlight and therefore reducing photosynthesis, as well as restricting space availability with its extensive root system. This invasive reduces the diversity of native vegetation and ultimately alters the structure of plant communities, especially in the forest floor and riparian zone ecosystems.
Periwinkle
Photo Credit: B. Brett
ID Characteristics: Periwinkle is an evergreen trailing invasive. Its flowers are pale blue to purple with 5 petals that are arranged like a pinwheel. Shiny, dark green leaves grow opposite one another along a stem that trails along the ground.
Ecological Impacts: Periwinkle grows in dense mats on the forest floor that crowd out native species. When it outcompetes native plants with deep roots on riverbanks, its shallow roots do not provide any stability to the banks and therefore run the risk of erosion. This invasive also releases chemicals that inhibit the growth of surrounding plants.
Smallflower Touch-Me-Not
ID Characteristics: This annual invasive has pale yellow flowers with slightly darker yellow-orange centers, arranged on thin stalks. Its leaves are oval, pointed, and sharply saw-toothed. Smallflower Touch-Me-Not earns its name from its seed pods that launch out their seeds when touched.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive outcompetes native species on stream banks. Since Smallflower Touch-Me-Not has shallow roots and dies every winter, it greatly increases stream bank erosion.
Yellow Flag Iris
Photo Credit: CKISS
ID Characteristics: It has classic iris flowers with 3 drooping, deep yellow sepals and 3 smaller upright petals. Yellow Flag Iris has narrow, flat, sward-like leaves that fan out from the base of the plant.
Ecological Impacts: Yellow Flag Iris actively outcompetes native plant species such as cattails, sedges, and rushes in wetland and riparian habitats. This invasive forms dense mats as it grows in waterways, which trap sediment and thereby choke natural waterways and irrigation canals. In turn, this aquatic invasive deteriorates the natural habitat for much native fish, amphibians, and nesting birds.
Pemberton Invasives
Canada Thistle
ID Characteristics: Canada Thistle can be identified by its small purple-pink flowers that have a sweet vanilla scent. You’ll want to watch out for this invasive as it has dark green, prickly leaves with spiny edges that alternate up the stem.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive is a rapid spreader and will expand in dense patches that out-compete native plants. Canada Thistle is also troublesome in wetland or riparian habitats as it releases toxic chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants.
Common Bugloss
ID Characteristics: Common Bugloss stands out with its 5-lobed, blue to purple flowers with white centers. These flowers are clustered at the ends of hairy stems. This invasive also has hairy, succulent leaves that are narrow and pointed. The entire plant is toxic if ingested by humans or livestock.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive forms large, dense strands that crowd out native species. Common Bugloss frequently invades fields and pastures where it can harm livestock that graze on it.
Common Tansy
Photo Credit: D. Steers
ID Characteristics: When in bloom, Common Tansy has clusters of small, yellow, button-shaped flowers at the end of its stems. This invasive can also be easily identified by its fern-like leaves arranged in an alternate pattern up the stem, which produce a strong smell when crushed. All parts of the plant are toxic to humans and livestock.
Ecological Impacts: Common Tansy outcompetes and crowds out native species. It often grows on riverbanks where it can restrict water flow.
Knapweed
ID Characteristics: Spotted Knapweed has light purple, aromatic flowers. The bracts of the flowers have black tips, giving them a spotted appearance. This invasive has small, grey-green, fuzzy leaves that grow in an alternate pattern along the stem.
Ecological Impacts: Knapweeds produce chemical compounds that prevent other plants’ growth, displacing native species and threatening biodiversity. Infestations of Knapweed can also increase runoff and erosion.
Orange Hawkweed
Photo Credit: T. Warren
ID Characteristics: Orange Hawkweed can be identified by its bright orange and yellow dandelion-like flowers. The flowers are at the top of the stems covered with black, bristly hairs. The rosette leaves of this invasive are also hairy.
Ecological Impacts: Orange Hawkweed forms dense mats that outcompete native species, leading to a drastic change in vegetation, loss of forage for livestock, and loss of biodiversity.
Wild Parsnip
ID Characteristics: This invasive can be identified by its yellow flowers, grouped into umbrella-shaped clusters. It has branched leaves, consisting of multiple mitten-shaped, toothed leaflets. Wild Parsnip is toxic and skin contact with its stem or leaves can cause severe blistering when exposed to sunlight
Ecological Impacts: Wild Parsnip outcompetes native plants and displaces pollinator-friendly species. This decreases biodiversity as honeybees do not visit Wild Parsnip.
Yellow Toadflax
ID Characteristics: Yellow Toadflax has bright yellow “snapdragon-like” flowers with orange throats that are arranged in groups at the ends of each branch. This invasive also has soft, narrow, and pale green leaves that are attached directly to the stem in an alternating pattern.
Ecological Impacts: This invasive often spreads to pastures where it is toxic to the wildlife that consume it. Yellow Toadflax outcompetes native plants, resulting in biodiversity loss.
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