Best Bets: Plants Tried and True Native Plants for Particular Uses To Replace Invasive Plants in the Mid-Atlantic INVASIVE PLANT: Chinese Silver Grass (Miscanthus sinensis)

This densely-bunched grass was introduced to the United States from Asia for ornamental purposes in the late 1800s. Today some 50 forms are sold in the nursery trade, and it is often used in both commercial and residential landscapes. Unfortunately, it escapes from these plantings and has become invasive in national parks in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. It is listed as an invasive species in Alexandria and Arlington, Virginia.

Problems Chinese Silver Grass & Indian Grass

Invades roadsides, rights-of-way, clearings, fields, and meadows

Outcompetes and crowds out native vegetation

Little wildlife value

Colonizes by wind-dispersed seed

Seeds build up in soil seed banks

Spreads also through rhizomes

Small bits of rhizome can start new plants

Hybrids from infertile cultivars can revert back to aggressive wild type

Highly flammable, may become a fire hazard

Desired Characteristics

Grass with vertical and winter interest

Native Alternatives

Chasmanthium latifolium (River Oats)

Elymus hystrix (Bottlebrush Grass)

Panicum virgatum (Switchgrass)

Schizachyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem)

Sorghastrum nutans (Indian Grass)

developed by Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia, serving Arlington and Alexandria Images by Elaine Mills, Sunny Garden and Meadowlark Botanical Gardens

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