There's a few terms when it comes to plants (Native, Non-Native, Invasive) which are defined by USDA fairly well but for a quick and dirty: Native been in the same geologic region/evolved over time; Non-Native evolved in other parts of the world or cultivated and doesn't exist in nature naturally; Invasive, a non-native which has the ability to spread quickly and destroy the localized ecology.

Unfortunately, there's far more non-native and non-native invasives in our roadsides, our forests and definitely at our homes. They aren't going away - after all they are evolving to stay longer - so it's our responsibility to not only stop planting them but to remove them when/where we can.

Exotic invasives are detrimental for a variety of reasons including (but not limited to), destruction of habitat, suffocation/strangulation of large wood plants (both trees and shrubs), harbinger for ticks/rodents, erosion of soils, create habitats for destructive insects, and falsely offer insect larval planting but unavailable nutrients.