Beach vitex is a deciduous woody non-native plant, which can sprawl more than 60 feet across the ground, crowding out native dune plants and altering sea turtle nesting areas.
The
plant, native to Korea, was introduced into the United States in the 1980s as a beach stabilization plant. There is still some debate as to how effectively it stabilizes and accomplishes that goal. Eradicating beach vitex is a critical effort. Therefore, the City of Virginia Beach will be working with homeowners to supply them with a list of acceptable replacement beach and dune plants and their growing seasons as well. Also, we have developed a program to assist homeowners with proper eradication and disposal of beach vitex. For more information and to report your sighting, contact Charles McKenna at
cmckenna@vbgov.com.
Help Stop Beach Vitex
If you see beach vitex anywhere in your beach community
, particularly on the dunes, please do not try to remove it! Please take a picture, get GPS coordinates, if possible, or find the nearest street address, and report your sighting here.
To learn more about beach vitex click here.