The War against Cogongrass

Geographic Strategy

Mapping

Control Techniques

What You Can Do

How We Can Help

Identification

Photo Gallery

Discussion

IFAS Profile

DEP Weed Alert

NPS Fact Sheet

FLEPPC Information

PCA Profile

Floridata Profile

TNC Stewardship Abstract

Cogongrass Website

Cogongrass Bibliography

Cogongrass is called the “Weed from Hell” for good reason. This grass is recognized as one of the world's worst weeds. It is an extremely aggressive and tenacious species that invades healthy natural communities and established pastures as well as disturbed sites. Cogongrass has proven that it is capable of converting vast acreages of biologically diverse landscape into monospecific low quality grasslands. It already covers hundreds of thousands of acres in the southeastern United States and tens of millions worldwide and it is still spreading rapidly.  Aggressive deep-reaching rhizomatous roots, secretions of allelopathic toxins, and the ability to smother surrounding vegetation with a dense thatch allow it to choke out competition. In natural areas, cogongrass replaces native groundcover vegetation, decimating wildflowers, destroying wildlife habitat, and decreasing endangered species populations. Its extreme flammability enables it to alter fire regimes to promote its own perpetuation. When cogongrass invades a new habitat, it increases fire frequency, intensity, and flame height, which can drastically magnify fire hazards, threatening rural homes and timberlands and endangering the firefighters who protect them. Since cogongrass is low in nutrients and only palatable to livestock when the new shoots are fresh and tender, it ruins hayfields and severely degrades pasture quality. It overwhelms ornamental plantings and, because it is coarse-textured, fast/tall-growing, and oddly colored, it ruins the appearance of lawns.

The best place to go to learn more about cogongrass is the University of Georgia's Cogongrass Website. The following websites also provide useful information on cogongrass:

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/BODY_WG202

http://www.ag.auburn.edu/agrn//cogongrass/cogongrass%20fact%20sheet.htm

http://www.cogongrass.org/

http://rcrec-ona.ifas.ufl.edu/IN012406.html

http://www.myakkariver.org/cogon_links1.html

http://www.floridata.com/ref/I/impe_cyl.cfm

http://www.invasive.org/eastern/srs/CG.html

http://www.fl-dof.com/forest_management/fh_invasives_cogon.html

http://www.fao.org/ag/AGP/AGPC/doc/Gbase/DATA/Pf000261.HTM