In message , kay
writes

Jake;921908 Wrote:


I also discovered today that I mustn't let cotoneaster horizontalis
get from my garden into the wild ("wild" is around two sides of my
garden). Does this mean that I must start shooting any bird that flies
off with a berry in its beak in case that bird eats the berry and
poops out the seed?

I'd get rid of the cotoneaster if I were you. My innocent looking little
plant is now 40ft long.

There are now 5 species of Cotoneaster on schedule 9 - C. integrifolius
(= C. microphyllus hort.), C. microphyllus, C. simonsii, C. bullatus, C.
horizontalis.

Unless someone is to start aggressively removing Cotoneasters from the
wild this may be closing the stable door after the horse has bolted;
several Cotoneasters are well established in the wild. I've recorded 13
species (and 1 hybrid) of Cotoneaster growing wild (over a 400 km^2)
area, and there are several other taxa that I haven't identified.
Cotoneaster rehderi, which isn't even on schedule 9 (but some people
wanted the whole genus added), is the best established. Cotoneaster
simonsii is about as widespread, but is still mostly restricted to urban
areas. Cotoneaster horizontalis trails in in third place. The new
edition of Stace has 86 taxa of Cotoneaster.

But the brids don't touch it - it's still covered with berries, along
with the pernettya.

The birds touch them sufficiently for seedlings to spring up all over
the place.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley