Miscanthus nepalensis
Environmental Weed (2024)
Common names
Himalayan fairy grass
Biostatus
Exotic
Category
Vascular
Structural class
Grasses
Detailed description
Tall tufted perennial grass to about 1 m tall. Culm 40–80 cm, purple-green to yellow-green with purplish nodes. Leaf-sheath often conspicuously purple, with scattered long silky hairs. Leaf-blade 20–60 cm × 4–10 mm, stiff with obvious pale green mid-rib, gradually tapering, margins rough to the touch. Panicle 10–20 cm, golden brown, drooping fan-shaped. Seed 1–1.5 mm.
Similar taxa
The drooping fan-shaped panicle is quite distinctive. M. sinensis is also cultivated and naturalised. M. sinensis has a creamy-brown inflorescence, is larger (to over 2 m ) and a form with variegated foliage is widely grown.
Habitat
Terrestrial. Waste areas, spreading from roadsides.
Conservation status
Not applicable
Detailed taxonomy
Family
Ecology
Year naturalised
1946
Origin
Nepal/India
Reason for introduction
Ornamental
Life cycle and dispersal
Perennial.
Other information
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.
MISNEP