Please do not be so quick to enter a final verdict! Florida is not the center of the world! I lived in Miami/SWMiami for six years so I h...Read Moreave something else to offer before your final judgement!
So far no problem in a desert climate such as San Diego, CA. Numerous other Savannah type Pennisetum species have adapted to mediterranean conditions here and continue to propagate usually without much impact. NAPIER grass is a tropical species requiring much moisture and warmth during a long growing season. It will only bloom when there is a long warm period with adequate moisture. This is the case in Florida but not here! That is why Florida is rampant with alien plant and animal species.
Pennisetum setaceum rubrum and some of Pennisetum cultivars ie. MOUDRY for example pose more of a threat than P. purpureum here. Only one example that I know of which was extensively planted by the Dept of Transportation as a slope stabilizer many years ago has established itself throughout So CA.
Another African Pennisetum considered as an invasive annual to a much more limited extent than the above is P. villosum FEATHERTOP.
Fortunately there are many native grasses here that survive where Savannah-adapted Pennisetum sps. need disturbed soils to proliferate. Unfortunately 90+% of original grasslands have been destroyed here leaving the "field" open to MANY invasive annual species that proliferate because of disturbed soils and the lack of the natural, renewing fires for which many CA native Forbes and grasses have adapted! Although "grasslands" remain to be seen by any inquisitive on-looker these are grasslands dominated by many alien annual Forbes and Grasses. Native grasslands are endangered habitats.
These are the facts for living in a Mediterranean climate which contradict any generalization based upon living in a Tropical/subtropical climate with an abundant rainfall during a warm season.
The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council has now listed this weed as a Category l invasive. That means that it has been proven to alter nati...Read Moreve plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives.
Please do not be so quick to enter a final verdict! Florida is not the center of the world! I lived in Miami/SWMiami for six years so I h...Read More
The Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council has now listed this weed as a Category l invasive. That means that it has been proven to alter nati...Read More
This stuff is very invasive. It will choke out nearby vegetation.