It will not have escaped notice by many of the gardeners here that the matter of "invasive" plants is something of a religion with some folks. There is all too commonly held a rather bizarre notion that every location has a fixed set of "proper" (aka "native" species), notwithstanding the plain biological facts that the species found in any given spot are, will be, and have always been constantly changing. The ranges of species expand and contract continually. These biological truths make the very concept of "nativeness" quite problematic.
It is especially unfortunate when some of those true believers come into positions of authority and are able to force their prejudices on others by threatening them with Government violence. If your local weed control authority is anything like my own, you will find the list of "forbidden" plants to be largely arbitrary, with most having no evidence given of harm caused by their existence (other than being "non-native"). I would suggest to anyone contemplating giving a warning about "invasive" plants to have some factual basis for their disparagement, because "invasive" frequently seems to mean nothing other than "does well and will establish itself in some locations where it is not recorded to have been before Columbus did his thing". To my mind, that by itself is a recommendation!
