Nassau County, FL Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

J of the Nassau County Land Development Code is a two-sentence, absolute prohibition rather than a discretionary standard: any species identified on the most recent Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council Invasive Plant List, Category I or II, is expressly forbidden from being planted or used as required or supplemental landscaping material anywhere covered by the landscaping article. The same ban is echoed one article over in the Amelia Island tree protection rules, where a tree cannot even qualify as a legally protected tree if it appears on that same Category I or II list, so an invasive species gets no removal permit protection either.

Because the FLEPPC list is incorporated by reference and described as 'the most recent,' the prohibition automatically tracks updates to the state list without Nassau County having to re-adopt its own text, meaning a species added to Category I or II after a landscape plan is designed can retroactively make that plant material noncompliant at inspection. The code frames the underlying concern in the second sentence of the section: invasive non-native vegetation in general is treated as a public nuisance that degrades both landscaped sites and natural areas, tying this planting ban to the same maritime forest and native-canopy goals that drive the county's tree protection and perimeter landscaping requirements elsewhere in article 37.