Invasive Plants in Sebastian, Florida

Brazilian pepper is the main invasive plant around Sebastian, followed by Australian pine on the lagoon spoil islands and a list of eight invaders controlled on Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.

On the refuge across the Indian River Lagoon from Sebastian, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducts chemical and mechanical control of Brazilian pepper, melaleuca, air potato, rosary pea, guinea grass, Chinese tallow tree, cogon grass and Japanese climbing fern (USFWS refuge management page). The Service describes these plants as noxious invaders that displace or kill native species, destroy habitat and disrupt ecological communities on the refuge.

On the water, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection states that much of the vegetation on the spoil islands of the Indian River-Malabar to Vero Beach Aquatic Preserve is exotic, consisting primarily of Brazilian pepper and Australian pine. FDEP lists the Main Street Boat Ramp, Sebastian Inlet State Park and the Wabasso Causeway Boat Ramp among the access points to the preserve.

Brazilian pepper spreads around Sebastian because birds and small mammals carry its fruit, and once established it forms a closed canopy that shades out native plants.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, in the statewide profile that covers Sebastian and the rest of Indian River County, calls Brazilian pepper the most widespread of Florida's nonnative invasive plant species, occupying more than 700,000 acres, and describes it as a shrub-like tree typically 15 to 30 feet tall. FWC states that it produces dense closed canopy forests that shade out almost all other plant life, alter natural fire regimes and are poor habitat for native wildlife. It also notes the tree has formed large dense forests in relatively undisturbed areas next to mangroves in southwestern Everglades National Park and in coastal West Central and South Florida.

The tree arrived as a garden plant. The UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center in Fort Pierce states that Brazilian peppertree was first introduced into Florida around 1840, and then again around 1890, for its winter crop of red fruit, which earned it the names Christmas berry and Florida holly. It was not recognized as a problem in the state until the 1960s. The center adds that the tree is dioecious, so only female trees produce fruit.

Movement is by animal. FWC states that local dispersal is primarily by raccoons and opossums, while long-distance spread is facilitated by fruit-eating birds such as migratory American robins. FDEP notes that the lagoon spoil islands support the majority of bird rookeries in the Indian River Lagoon Aquatic Preserve system, a likely route for seedlings to reach islands no person ever planted.

Around Sebastian, invasive plants concentrate on the spoil islands in the lagoon and on the uplands and shoreline of Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge.

The 1986 state management plan for the aquatic preserve counted close to 55 spoil islands in the lagoon within the Malabar to Vero Beach preserve that fronts Sebastian and stated that vegetation on them is generally dominated by exotics such as Australian pine and Brazilian pepper, while the shoreline fringe is generally covered with mangroves and other native wetland plants. The current FDEP description matches that split four decades later.

On the barrier island, the refuge public use areas are on the Historic Jungle Trail, 3.3 miles south of Sebastian Inlet (USFWS, Visit Us). Refuge management there includes exotic plant removal, herbicide application, tree removal and supplemental plantings, and a fire management plan allows prescribed fires that encourage new growth of native vegetation (USFWS). The 1986 plan also noted that the saltmarsh community along the lagoon can hold mangroves, cabbage palms and exotics mixed in with native plants.

No: in Sebastian, as everywhere in Florida, possessing Brazilian pepper with intent to sell or plant it is illegal without a special permit, and air potato is illegal to plant.

FWC states the Brazilian pepper rule directly and advises never planting the tree (FWC). UF/IFAS Gardening Solutions states that it is illegal to plant air potato, a twining vine whose stems can rapidly grow to 60 feet and which forms hundreds of bulbils that drop and sprout. Both plants are on the Pelican Island refuge control list.

UF/IFAS recommends removing Brazilian pepper trees found in a landscape. It describes cutting the trunk as close to the ground as possible and, within five minutes, applying a recommended herbicide to the entire stump (UF/IFAS). Cut brush from a Sebastian lot can go out with the weekly yard waste pickup: under universal curbside service that began July 1, 2023, each City of Sebastian residence receives once-a-week collection of garbage, yard waste and bulk waste, and WM answers questions at 855-292-6719 (City of Sebastian).

For identification help, the UF/IFAS Extension Indian River County office lists (772) 226-4330, hours of Monday to Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and volunteer Master Gardeners who give research-based advice to county residents. Its contact block gives 7961 58th Avenue, Vero Beach, while the page footer still shows 1800 27th Street, so a call before driving over from Sebastian saves a wasted trip. Last verified: October 14, 2026, on the City of Sebastian and UF/IFAS Extension Indian River County websites.

The largest volunteer effort near Sebastian began in October 2002, when the Marine Resources Council and FDEP cleared Brazilian pepper and replanted about 230 acres of lagoon shoreline.

The NOAA Restoration Center record of the Pelican Island Wildlife Sanctuary Shoreline Restoration Project lists sites in the San Sebastian River State Buffer Preserve, Sebastian Inlet State Park and Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge. Sixty-five invasive removal events were conducted along the 4.5 mile stretch of the project site to remove the invasive Brazilian pepper tree. Over 700 volunteers took part in more than 30 native planting events, logging 2,842 volunteer hours, and the planted species included buttonwood and seagrape along with mangroves.

Yes, statewide: Brazilian pepper thrips studied by UF/IFAS have been released at parks and private ranches in Florida, including a 2019 release at Adams Ranch in Fort Pierce, south of Sebastian.

The UF/IFAS Indian River Research and Education Center lists four candidate agents under study at the UF/IFAS Norman C. Hayslip Biological Control Research and Containment Laboratory, the Brazilian pepper thrips (Pseudophilothrips ichini) and three Calophya species. Release permits for C. latiforceps and P. ichini were issued in June 2019. The center states that researchers have observed the thrips beginning to affect Brazilian peppertrees, and that scientists consider biological control the best way to control the species because it avoids expensive mechanical control and chemicals. It publishes a statewide map of thrips release sites, and its event list includes an October 24, 2019 release celebration at Adams Ranch in Fort Pierce and a February 13, 2020 field demonstration at McCarty Ranch in Port Saint Lucie, both south of Sebastian.

The state program behind this is large. FWC reports that beginning in the 1960s melaleuca and Brazilian pepper spread rapidly into south Florida conservation lands, that nonnative invasive plants now affect approximately 1.5 million acres of Florida, and that its invasive plant section oversees the largest program of its kind in the United States (FWC). For the lagoon off Sebastian, the 1986 plan directed field staff to develop an exotic plant control and removal plan for Brazilian pepper, Australian pine and melaleuca.