Swordgrass (Miscanthus floridulus)

Present distribution

Scientific name:	Miscanthus floridulus (Labill.) Warb. ex K. Schum. & Lauterb.
Common name(s):	Swordgrass

This weed is not known to be naturalised in Victoria

Habitat:

Tropical grass species found from sea level to 3000m, in various habitats including rocky mountain slopes, swamps, bog grasslands and disturbed land, as well as open spaces within forests (Lazarides 1980). Reported also as a weed during forestry plantation establishment in Fiji (Bell 1980).

Potential distribution

Potential distribution produced from CLIMATE modelling refined by applying suitable landuse and vegetation type overlays with CMA boundaries

Map Overlays Used

Land Use:
Coastal scrubs and grassland; coastal grassy woodland; swamp scrub; inland slopes woodland; sedge rich woodland; montane dry woodland; sub-alpine woodland; grassland; plains grassy woodland; valley grassy forest; herb-rich woodland; sub-alpine grassy woodland; montane grassy woodland; riverine grassy woodland; rainshadow woodland; mallee woodland; wimmera / mallee woodland

Broad vegetation types
Coastal scrubs and grassland; grassland

Colours indicate possibility of Miscanthus floridulus infesting these areas.

In the non-coloured areas the plant is unlikely to establish as the climate, soil or landuse is not presently suitable.

map showing the potential distribution of swardgrass

Red= Very high	Orange = Medium
Yellow = High	Green = Likely

Impact

QUESTION	COMMENTS	RATING	CONFIDENCE
Social
1. Restrict human access?	Can grow to 5m and form dense clumps, passage through for the individual could be hampered (Darke 1994).	ml	mh
2. Reduce tourism?	Ornamental grass species capable of growing to 5m, (Darke 1994) When seed heads by our they blow around and may a mess, may alter aesthetics (Dave’s Garden 2006).	ml	m
3. Injurious to people?	None reported	l	m
4. Damage to cultural sites?	Has rhizomatous root system, however not reported causing any structural damage Is tall grass species of up to 5m, and dry seed heads are reported to make a mess, therefore may impact on the aesthetics (Darke 1994 and Dave’s Garden 2006).	ml	m
Abiotic
5. Impact flow?	Not reported in flowing water so impact would be minimal (Lazarides 1980).	l	mh
6. Impact water quality?	Reported to inhabit swampy places (Lazarides 1980). No evidence of its impact on water quality.	l	m
7. Increase soil erosion?	Rhizomatous root system able to prevent soil erosion even when the plant has been killed (Bell 1980).	ml	mh
8. Reduce biomass?	Grass species capable of high biomass production (Darke 1994). However would not act as significant carbon sink.	ml	m
9. Change fire regime?	Can grow even taller than M. sinensis which is capable of high biomass yields of 15 t DM ha^-1 and responds well to fires (Clifton-Brown & Lewandowski 2000; Darke 1994 and Gillison 1969). High fuel loads due to high biomass production will greatly alter fire intensity comparatively to the lighter fuel loads of native and pasture grasses (Noble 1991)	h	m
Community Habitat
10. Impact on composition (a) high value EVC	CLIMATE match unlikely. May grow within Victoria unlikely to naturalise.	l	m
(b) medium value EVC	CLIMATE match unlikely. May grow within Victoria unlikely to naturalise.	l	m
(c) low value EVC	CLIMATE match unlikely. May grow within Victoria unlikely to naturalise.	l	m
11. Impact on structure?	Can be dominant species of grass/herb layer, over-storey species still capable to establishment, this is only prevented a disturbance regime of mowing or annual burning (Hill, Peart & Dong-Sheng 2004).	ml	mh
12. Effect on threatened flora?	No evidence reported	mh	l
Fauna
13. Effect on threatened fauna?	No evidence reported	mh	l
14. Effect on non-threatened fauna?	Dense clumping grass, capable of growing to 5m (Darke 1994). Creating tall grasslands may impact on reptile species.	ml	m
15. Benefits fauna?	Edible species, capable of forming dense clumps and would provide shelter for some species (Darke 1994 and Zhu 1989).	mh	m
16. Injurious to fauna?	None reported	l	m
Pest Animal
17. Food source to pests?	Eaten by grazing species, however reportadly not liked by rabbits (Bell 1980 and Oudolf & Gerritson 2003).	ml	m
18. Provides harbor?	Tall grass capable of giving short term harbour	m	l
Agriculture
19. Impact yield?	Can strongly compete in the early stages of forestry plantations (Bell 1980). In China it is cut for hay to use as fodder during winter (Zhu 1989).	ml	m
20. Impact quality?	No reports of this.	l	m
21. Affect land value?	None reported	l	m
22. Change land use?	No evidence reported	l	m
23. Increase harvest costs?	Increase preparation needed to establish forestry plantations (Bell 1980).	m	mh
24. Disease host/vector?	None reported, however M. sinensis can be infected by Barley yellow dwarf luteovirus (Christian et al 1994).	m	l

Invasive

QUESTION	COMMENTS	RATING	CONFIDENCE
Establishment
1. Germination requirements?	Germination rate has been found to increase with increasing temperatures (Hsu 1986). This coupled with a seed viability of 6 months, would mean most seed will germinate in spring to early summer (Hsu 2000).	mh	m
2. Establishment requirements?	Only reported in open areas of forest, otherwise restricted to open habitats (Lazarides 1980).	ml	m
3. How much disturbance is required?	A grassland species, however is described with a preference to disturbed areas (Chou & Chung 1974)	ml	mh
Growth/Competitive
4. Life form?	A perennial rhizomatous grass species (Darke 1994).	mh	mh
5. Allelopathic properties?	Able to form monocultures through its allelopathy (Chou et al 1991). Some evidence to show that substances leached from M. floridulus in the rhizosphere can reduce the germination of other species (Chou & Chung 1974).	mh	mh
6. Tolerates herb pressure?	M. floridulus has been found to proportionally increase under an annual harvesting regime (Hill, Peart & Dong-Sheng 2004). Has been suggested for use in grazing systems of Taiwan (Wang & Lee 1991).	mh	mh
7. Normal growth rate?	Tall grass species which has been reported as being dominant species in grassland habitats of Taiwan (Chou et al 1991). Must therefore be at least competitive with other grass species.	mh	mh
8. Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc?	Plants from lower elevations have been transplanted at higher elevations where they persisted for two years (Chou et al 1991). Therefore Plants exposed to cold don’t immediately die, but are gradually weakened by climatic conditions. Reported to become dominant species in montane grassland after fire (Gillison 1969). (Highly fire tolerant) Tolerant of salt laden winds in a coastal setting (Oudolf & Gerritson 2003). ( Salt tolearnt) Reported to inhabit bog grasslands and swampy places, therefore tolerant of waterlogging (Lazarides 1980).	mh	mh
Reproduction
9. Reproductive system	Capable of sexual reproduction able to set seed, as well as clonal reproduction through rhizomes (Koyama 1987).	h	mh
10. Number of propagules produced?	From images, M. floridulus has many flowers and seed set per inflorescence (Koyama 1987). M. sinensis was found to be capable of producing 2000 seeds or more (Nishiwaki, A. Sugawara, K. 1996).	h	m
11. Propagule longevity?	Seed viability has been found to reduce dramatically, with seed no longer viable after 6 months under natural conditions (Hsu 2000).	l	mh
12. Reproductive period?	Able to form monocultures (Chou et al 1991).	h	h
13. Time to reproductive maturity?	Above ground shoots are annual, mostly dieing back over winter to then re-shoot from rhizomes in the next growing season (Chou et al 1991). Therefore seed set and/or the production of more rhizomes occurs within the first growing season.	h	mh
Dispersal
14. Number of mechanisms?	Wind dispersed (Liao et al 2006).	mh	mh
15. How far do they disperse?	Wind dispersed seed, reported to quickly dominate a wasteland area after coal mining (Liao et al 2006). Therefore some seed must be able to travel distances greater than 1km.	h	m

References
Bell T.I.W. (1980) Establishing Pinus caribaea plantations on reed covered areas. Fiji Pine Research Paper. 6: 11

Christian D.G., Lamptey J.N.L., Forde S.M.D. & Plumb B.T. (1994) First report of barley yellow dwarf luteovirus on Miscanthus in the United Kingdom. European Journal of Plant Pathology. 100: 167-170

Chou C.H & Chung Y.T. (1974) The allelopathic potential of Miscanthus floridulus. Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica. 15: 14-27

Chou C.H., Lee Y.F., Chiu C.Y., Wang Y.C. & Hsu F.H. (1991) Population study of Miscanthus IV. Growth performance of M. floridulus and M. transmorrisonensis and their acclimation to temperature and water stresses. Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica. 32: 87-96

Clifton-Brown J.C. & Lewandowski I. (2000) Overwintering problems of newly established Miscanthus plantations can ve overcome by identifying genotypes with improved rhizomes cold tolerance. New Phytologist. 148: 287-294

Darke R. (1994) Manual of Grasses. Timber Press. Oregon.

Dave’s Garden: Dave’s Garden “For Gardeners… By Gardeners”. viewed 12 Dec 2006, http://davesgarden.com/

Gillison A.N. (1969) Plant sucession in an irreguarly fired grassland area-Doma Peaks region, Papua. Journal of Ecology. 57: 415-428

Hill R.D., Peart M.R. & Dong-Sheng G. (2004) The effects of annual harvesting on the subsequent phytomass and species composition of grassland and fernland: a Hong Kong case. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. 25: 77-91

Hsu F.H. (1986) Germination of forage and native grass species in Taiwan. Taiwan Livestock Research. 19: 87-97

Hsu F.H. (2000) Seed longevity of Miscanthus species. Journal of Taiwan Livestock Research. 33: 145-153

Koyama T. (1987) Grasses of Japan and its Neighboring Regions: An Identification Manual. Kodansha. Tokyo

Lazarides M. (1980) The Tropical Grasses of Southeast Asia (excluding Bamboos). J. Cramer. Vaduz, Liechtenstein

Liao F., Yang Q., Yan Y., Hu Y. & Luo S. (2006) Naturally colonized plants of coalmine wasteland in Mingshan, Meizhou, Guangdong. Jouranl of South China Agricultural University. 27: 65-69

Nishiwaki A., Sugawar K. & Ito I. (1996) The effect of cattle grazing on seed production in Miscanthus sinensis Anderss. Grassland Science. 42: 47-51

Noble J.C. (1991) Behaviour of a very fast grassland wildfire on the riverine plain of southeastern Australia. International Journal of Wildland Fire. 1: 189-196

Oudolf P. & Gerritson H. (2003) Planting the Natural Garden. Timber Press. UK.

Wang Y.C. & Lee M.L. (1991) The distribution of reserve carbohydrates and their relationship with shooting ability in Miscanthus species in Taiwan. Journal of Taiwan Livestock Research. 24: 41-50

Zhu B.C. (1989) On the cultivation and utilization of floret silvergrass (Miscanthus floridulus) in the southern area of China. Proceedings of the XVI International Grassland Congress. 607-608

Global present distribution data references
Australian National Herbarium (ANH) 2006, Australia’s Virtual Herbarium, Australian National Herbarium, Centre for Plant Diversity and Research, viewed 27 Sep 2006, http://www.anbg.gov.au/avh/

Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) 2006, Global biodiversity information facility: Prototype data portal, viewed 27 Sep 2006, http://www.gbif.org/

Hill R.D., Peart M.R. & Dong-Sheng G. (2004) The effects of annual harvesting on the subsequent phytomass and species composition of grassland and fernland: a Hong Kong case. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography. 25: 77-91

Missouri Botanical Gardens (MBG) 2006, w³TROPICOS, Missouri Botanical Gardens Database, viewed 27 Sep 2006, http://mobot.mobot.org/W3T/Search/vast.html

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