Wavyleaf Basketgrass
History of Invasion
Two small populations of a perennial grass never previously found in the US were discovered in Patapsco Valley State Park by sharp-eyed botanists in 1996. Smithsonian Institution and international experts confirmed its identity as wavyleaf basketgrass (Oplismenus hirtellus ssp. undulatifolius), an exotic subspecies of a grass native to southeast Asia.
Two related grasses, basketgrass (Oplismenus hirtellus)
and bristle basketgrass (Oplismenus hirtellus ssp. setarius),are native to the southern and mid-western United
States. But the Asian subspecies is NOT native, and until the
summer of 2008, when four populations were reported from
Virginia, Maryland was the only place on the North American
continent that this grass had been reported. |
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Basketgrass
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Bristle basketgrass
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