Ehrharta villosa
NPPA pest plant
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
pyp grass
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Grasses
Detailed description
Strongly rhizomatous perennial grass to 1.5 m tall. Stems cane-like, erect. Leaves short, rolled. Seedhead a slender panicle, 10–20 cm long. Seeds purplish.
Similar taxa
It is the only strongly rhizomatous Ehrharta species in New Zealand.
Habitat
Terrestrial. Short tussockland, herbfield, bare land, wetland, mainly on coastline, sand dunes.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Poaceae
Ecology
Flowering
October, November, December, January
Fruiting
Spring–summer
Year naturalised
1990
Origin
Sth Africa
Reason for introduction
Agricultural
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial.
Other information
Etymology
villosa: From Latin (villus) meaning shaggy or hairy.
National Pest Plant Accord species
This plant is listed in the 2020 National Pest Plant Accord. The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) is an agreement to prevent the sale and/or distribution of specified pest plants where either formal or casual horticultural trade is the most significant way of spreading the plant in New Zealand. For up to date information and an electronic copy of the 2020 Pest Plant Accord manual (including plant information and images) visit the MPI website.
Environmental Weed (2024)
This plant is named in a list of 386 environmental weeds in New Zealand 2024 prepared by DOC. 759 candidate species were considered for inclusion on this new comprehensive list of environmental weeds in New Zealand. The species considered were drawn from published lists of weed species, lists of plants that must be reported or managed by law if observed, existing national and regional programmes and agreements for pest management, and species already managed by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Candidate species were then assessed to see if they were fully naturalised and whether they have more than minor impacts in natural ecosystems. Read the full report here.
NVS code
The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.
EHRVIL