. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. A . coastal menace is creeping onto shorelines along the Carolinas. 9} r7* & Like all crafty invaders, this plant travels well, conquers quickly and has a good disguise. Its seeds and broken stems float on ocean currents to root and colonize new areas. It grows rapidly, choking out native plants. And its beguiling purple flowers will turn heads this summer — some out of admiration for its unique blooms, others out of loathing for its tenacious assault on North and South Carolina dunes. Nicknamed "
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. Coast watch. Marine resources; Oceanography; Coastal zone management; Coastal ecology. A . coastal menace is creeping onto shorelines along the Carolinas. 9} r7* & Like all crafty invaders, this plant travels well, conquers quickly and has a good disguise. Its seeds and broken stems float on ocean currents to root and colonize new areas. It grows rapidly, choking out native plants. And its beguiling purple flowers will turn heads this summer — some out of admiration for its unique blooms, others out of loathing for its tenacious assault on North and South Carolina dunes. Nicknamed "Kudzu of the Coast, " beach vitex (Vitex rotundifolia) has spread so far and so fast in the Carolinas that experts are pushing to have it listed as a Federal Noxious Weed. A deciduous, sprawl- ing shrub native to the western Pacific, beach vitex easily outpaces slower growing natives such as sea oats or the endangered seabeach amaranth, says Dale Suiter, wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service office in Raleigh. "And it may out-compete other rare plants that are In 2003, Brabson was called to an unmarked nest in Isle of Palms, S.C., to help some wayward hatchlings confused by condominium lights. Brabson arrived to find a heartbreaking scene: the baby turtles had become tangled in the beach vitex mats. "They got all caught up and died because of dehydration, " she says. ^1. Op 4q not yet listed as threatened or endangered, " he adds. Many sea turtle experts and volunteers also worry about the mat of tangled vines beach vitex forms along the soil. The plant can reach one to two feet in height and 12 feet in diam- eter, possibly putting sea turtle hatchlings at risk as they emerge from buried nests. Although there are no research studies to document that problem, Betsy Brabson, a South Carolina resident and sea turtle volunteer, has witnessed the threat first hand. LEFT: Beach vitex can be identified in the spring and summer by its purple