[APWG] QUESTION: Escaped Miscanthus spp. in your area? (fwd)

[Olivia Kwong]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 12:39:50 -0400
From: Jil_Swearingen at nps.gov
Subject: Fw: Escaped Miscanthus spp. in your area?


Hi,

Please read Dr. Quinn's message below and contact her if you'd like to
participate in her project. The more input she receives, the better the
results. Miscanthus is known to be invasive in natural areas in the eastern
U.S. with most reported occurrences coming from northern New Jersey and the
Appalachian region of North Carolina and Tennessee, sporadically elsewhere
(see link below). It may be underreported in the mid-Atlantic.

http://www.eddmaps.org/midatlantic/distribution/viewmap.cfm?sub=3052

Thank you,

Jil
________________
JiL SWEARINGEN
IPM & Invasive Species Specialist
NCR Center for Urban Ecology
Washington, DC 20007
202-342-1443, ex 218

www.nps.gov/cue | www.nps.gov/plants/alien
www.invasiveplantatlas.org | www.maipc.org

----- Forwarded by Jil Swearingen/NCR/NPS on 04/06/2011 12:22 PM -----

From: Lauren Quinn <ldquinn at illinois.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 24, 2011 1:34 PM

Hello,

First of all, apologies for cross- and duplicate postings. This message
seems to have been going around fast and furious in the last couple of
days! Thanks to any of you who have already responded.

I am a researcher at the University of Illinois, and I'm looking for help
to locate escaped individuals or whole populations of Miscanthus sinensis
and/or M. sacchariflorus in natural areas in your state. As you may know,
these are large ornamental grasses commonly planted in gardens and used in
landscaping. Unfortunately, many varieties of Miscanthus have the capacity
to produce copious viable seeds which can establish in "natural" areas
(e.g. roadsides, pastures, forest openings) to become invasive. As part of
a large study aimed at describing the current distribution of naturalized
Miscanthus populations, I am planning to visit as many of these populations
as possible this summer and next.

If your membership can help me out with specific locations and other
information (see below), I'd very much appreciate it! Also, feel free to
forward this message to any other knowledgeable parties. I am not
restricting my search to the Southeast, so if you've got weedy friends in
other parts of the country, feel free to send it along.

More specifics on what I'm looking for...

- The species: Miscanthus sinensis and Miscanthus sacchariflorus
General info on M. sinensis:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MISI
General info on M. sacchariflorus:
http://plants.usda.gov/java/profile?symbol=MISA
Current known distribution of naturalized/escaped/invasive M. sinensis:
http://www.eddmaps.org/google/index.cfm?sub=3052
A side-by-side comparison of M. sinesis and M. sacchariflorus:
http://miscanthus.cfans.umn.edu/identification.html

- The environmental context: any Miscanthus individuals in "natural" areas.
That is, plants that have established independently away from intentional
cultivation. "Natural areas" can be roadsides, forest openings, pastures,
etc. I am not as interested in instances of "volunteer" plants growing in
the same yard where they were planted in the first place. Ideally, I'm
looking for plants that have moved themselves (via seed dispersal or rarely
rhizome dispersal) some substantial distance away from plantings (perhaps
across some natural boundary) to establish healthy self-sustaining
populations.
Examples of such populations for M. sinensis:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lauren.quinn/MiscanthusSinensisUSAPopulations?authkey=Gv1sRgCLejucuBiq7GAg#


- The info I'd like (I'll take whatever I can get):
Location (GPS coordinates, if possible. If not, then an intersection, or
other landmark)
Description of environmental context (e.g. roadside, pasture, etc)
Population size (a rough estimate of the number of plants. E.g. one, a
handful, a dozen, hundreds, etc)
If on private property, names/contact info of property owners if possible
If possible, an estimate of the history of the population (how long it has
been there, where the nearest planting is and when it was planted)
A photo of the population
Your contact info

- An additional useful step:
If possible, folks could add their sightings to the map of naturalized
populations of M. sinensis and M. sacchariflorus on EDDMaps. I suppose I
don't have to tell the folks on this list about this service (!), but the
fairly painless process is described here:
http://www.eddmaps.org/report/index2.cfm
Otherwise, folks can send their sightings directly to me at this email
address: ldquinn at illinois.edu

Thank you so much!

Lauren Quinn


Lauren D. Quinn, Ph.D.
Post Doctoral Researcher
Energy Biosciences Institute
University of Illinois
Urbana, IL 61801