Raleigh, NC Invasive Plant Rules: Prohibited Species (2026)

The ban sits inside Sec. 7's Plant Materials standards, the same subsection that sets baseline horticultural rules for every required tree, shrub, and buffer planting citywide: material must be hardy to USDA Zone 7, able to survive on natural rainfall once established, and trees cannot be placed inside a tree conservation area or an existing tree's critical root zone. 2, meaning street trees, parking-lot landscaping, protective yards, and screening buffers all have to be planted with non-invasive stock. The rule reaches beyond new plantings: 'nor shall any existing invasive species be used to satisfy any such requirement,' so a builder cannot point to volunteer privet, English ivy, or other Plant Toolbox-listed species already growing on a lot and count it as credit toward the required number of trees or shrubs.

Development Services checks compliance at landscape plan review and again before issuing the certificate of compliance required under Sec. A, no certificate of compliance can issue until landscaping, including species selection, has been installed in accordance with the UDO. Because the database is maintained by NC State Extension rather than fixed in the ordinance text, the list of prohibited species can change as the Plant Toolbox is updated, so a species acceptable at design may need to be re-checked at planting.