Agriculture Agencies Work to Uproot Imported Weed

A noxious weed banned by the government has found its way into as many as 35 states, from Alaska to Georgia, after Home Depot received it in a shipment of exotic reeds from Holland and sold it as a pond plant.

State and federal agriculture inspectors have scrambled to recover most of the plants from gardeners over the summer, but they fear that the bulbous, reedy plant may be impossible to trace because of cash sales. By one account, however, 91% of the plants had been found.

“We’re hoping to get as many of them out of circulation as possible,” said Randy Westbrooks, coordinator of the U.S. Agriculture Department’s noxious weed program. “Chances are most of them will die, but some will live and we will have another invasive species.”

Inspectors also plan to scrutinize imported plants more closely now, and have asked the Netherlands to stop any further shipments of the unwanted plant, Westbrooks said.

Known as the burr reed, or Sparganium erectum, the weed can choke waterways and interfere with recreation in shallow waters that lack its natural predators. The 6-foot-long, green reed has a small yellow flower that contains a burr-like fruit.

Federal plant inspectors inadvertently allowed about 4,200 burr reed plants into the country in the shipment from Holland in May, Westbrooks said. The plant was not known to exist in the United States before the Dutch shipment arrived.

A note was attached to the container stating it was a pre-cleared shipment, he said. Under an agreement, the United States and Holland certify that some shipments to each other’s country do not contain plants that are contaminated or banned.

Westbrooks said the noxious weed was identified near the bottom of the shipping papers.

Jerry Shields, a spokesman for Atlanta-based Home Depot, said the home improvement chain was cooperating with inspectors to recover the plants.

David Reeves, the Agriculture Department official who issued the alert on the plants, said they have reached 35 states. That was based on an estimate, however, and no list was available.

Susan A. Greer of Garden State Bulb Co., which imported the plants, said she had no state-by-state breakdown of where the plants went. They were sold to four divisions of Home Depot, not to individual stores.

She noted that officials had written her company complimenting it on its cooperation in the recovery of the plants. As of this week, she said, 91% had been recovered.