MoIP Invasive Plant Assessment
The Missouri Invasive Plant Assessment is a comprehensive statewide assessment of known and potentially invasive plants. The completion of this assessment meets one of MoIP’s critically important priority goals.
Our Approach
Starting with our network of local, state and federal agencies and private industries, MoIP sought input from experienced field biologists in Missouri.
MoIP sent these guidelines to reviewers, along with a detailed spreadsheet to complete with their observations.
MoIP received 26 completed reviews.
Categories of Assessment
MoIP invited reviewers to assign independent ranks for the following three categories:
1. Impact
How severe is the current impact of the species on natural communities in each of Missouri’s primary ecological regions?
2. Current Abundance
Estimate the species current abundance in each of Missouri’s primary ecological regions.
3. Trend in Distribution and Abundance
Based on observations and regional trends over the past 10-20 years, estimate how rapidly the species range will expand to form new occurrences throughout each of Missouri’s primary ecological regions over the next 10 years?
Invasive Plant Assessment Maps
Select "Show X entries" to view more rows at once.To view and download all map files, use the Dropbox link below the table.
| Scientific Name | Common Name - USDA PLANTS | Map |
|---|---|---|
| Acer platanoides | Norway maple, harlequin maple |  |
| Acer tataricum subsp. ginnala | Amur maple |  |
| Achyranthes japonica | Japanese chaff flower |  |
| Acroptilon repens | hardheads, Russian knapweed, creeping knapweed |  |
| Ailanthus altissima | tree-of-heaven, ailanthus, varnish-tree, copa-tree |  |
| Akebia quinata | chocolate vine, five-leaf akebia |  |
| Albizia julibrissin | silktree, mimosa, silk-tree albizia |  |
| Alliaria petiolata | garlic mustard |  |
| Alternanthera sessilis | sessile joyweed |  |
| Ampelopsis brevipedunculata | porcelain berry |  |
| Aralia elata | Japanese angelica tree |  |
| Arctium minus | burdock, cockle-button, clotbur |  |
| Arundo donax | giant reed, cana-brava, carrizo |  |
| Belamcanda chinensis | blackberry lily, leopard flower |  |
| Berberis thunbergii | Japanese barberry |  |
| Bothriochloa bladhii | Caucasian bluestem |  |
| Bothriochloa ischaemum | yellow bluestem, plains blue-stem, King Ranch blue-stem |  |
| Bromus inermis | smooth brome, Hungarian brome, awnless brome grass |  |
| Bromus sterilis | bromegrass, barren brome, poverty brome |  |
| Bromus tectorum | cheat grass, downy brome |  |
| Broussonetia papyrifera | paper mulberry, tapa-cloth-tree |  |
| Butomus umbellatus | flowering rush, grassy-rush |  |
| Cardamine impatiens | narrowleaf bittercress |  |
| Carduus nutans | musk thistle, nodding thistle, plumeless thistle |  |
| Castanea mollissima | Chinese chestnut |  |
| Celastrus orbiculatus | Oriental bittersweet |  |
| Cenchrus purpurascens | fountain grass |  |
| Centaurea solstitialis | yellow star thistle |  |
| Centaurea stoebe subsp. micranthos | spotted knapweed |  |
| Cirsium arvense | Canada thistle, creeping thistle, small-flowered thistle |  |
| Cirsium vulgare | bull thistle |  |
| Clematis terniflora | sweet autumn virginsbower |  |
| Conium maculatum | poison hemlock, snake-weed, spotted-hemlock |  |
| Convolvulus arvensis | field bindweed, bear-bind, creeping-Jennie, small-flowered morning-glory |  |
| Cynanchum louiseae | black swallow-wort, climbing milkweed |  |
| Cynanchum rossicum | European swallow-wort |  |
| Dioscorea polystachya | air potato, Chinese yam, cinnamon vine |  |
| Dipsacus fullonum | common teasel, wild teasel |  |
| Dipsacus laciniatus | cut-leaf teasel |  |
| Echium vulgare | common viper's bugloss, blue-thistle, blueweed, blue-devil |  |
| Egeria densa | Brazilian waterweed, Brazilian elodea, egeria |  |
| Eichhornia crassipes | water hyacinth |  |
| Elaeagnus angustifolia | Russian olive, oleander, silver berry |  |
| Elaeagnus umbellata | autumn olive |  |
| Eragrastis curvula | weeping lovegrass |  |
| Euonymus alatus | winged burning bush, winged spindle-tree, winged euonymus |  |
| Euonymus fortunei | climbing euonymus, wintercreeper |  |
| Euphorbia esula | leafy spurge, wolf's milk, faitours-grass |  |
| Fallopia japonica | Japanese knotweed, fleece-flower |  |
| Festuca arundinacea | tall fescue, reed fescue, alta fescue |  |
| Frangula alnus | glossy buckthorn, European alder buckthorn |  |
| Galega officinalis | goatsrue, European Goat's Rue, Professor Weed |  |
| Glechoma hederacea | ground ivy, creeping charlie, alehoof, field-balm, runaway-robin |  |
| Hedera helix | English ivy |  |
| Hemerocallis fulva | orange daylily, tawny daylily, fulvous daylily |  |
| Heracleum mantegazzianum | giant hogweed |  |
| Hesperis matronalis | dame’s rocket, sweet-rocket, mother-of-the-evening |  |
| Humulus japonicus | Japanese hops |  |
| Hydrilla verticillata | hydrilla |  |
| Hypericum perforatum | St. John's wort, goat-weed, eola-weed |  |
| Imperata cylindrica | cogongrass, Kasongole |  |
| Iris pseudacorus | yellow flag iris |  |
| Koelreuteria paniculata | golden rain tree, pride-of-India, China-tree |  |
| Kummerowia stipulacea | Korean clover, Korean lespedeza, Korean bush-clover |  |
| Kummerowia striata | Japanese clover, Japanese bush-clover, annual lespedeza, Japanese lespedeza |  |
| Landoltia punctata | dotted duckweed |  |
| Lepidium latifolium | pepperweed |  |
| Lespedeza bicolor | bicolor lespedeza, shrub bush-clover, shrub lespedeza |  |
| Lespedeza cuneata | sericea lespedeza, Chinese bush-clover |  |
| Lespedeza thunbergii | Thunberg's bushclover, Thunberg's lespedeza |  |
| Ligustrum amurense | Amur privet |  |
| Ligustrum japonicum | Japanese privet, wax-leaf privet |  |
| Ligustrum lucidum | glossy privet |  |
| Ligustrum obtusifolium | border privet |  |
| Ligustrum ovalifolium | California privet |  |
| Ligustrum quihoui | waxyleaf privet |  |
| Ligustrum sinense | Chinese privet |  |
| Ligustrum vulgare | European privet |  |
| Lonicera fragrantissima | sweet breath of spring, winter honeysuckle, fragrant honeysuckle, January jasmine, Chinese honeysuckle |  |
| Lonicera japonica | Japanese honeysuckle |  |
| Lonicera maackii | Amur honeysuckle |  |
| Lonicera morrowii | Morrow's honeysuckle |  |
| Lonicera tatarica | Tartarian bush honeysuckle |  |
| Lonicera x bella | Bell's honeysuckle |  |
| Lonicera xylosteum | dwarf honeysuckle, European fly honeysuckle, fly honeysuckle |  |
| Lotus corniculatus | birdsfoot trefoil |  |
| Lysimachia nummularia | creeping jenny, creeping loosestrife, moneywort, yellow-myrtle, creeping-Charlie |  |
| Lythrum salicaria | purple loosestrife, bouguet-violet, purple lythrum, spiked loosestrife |  |
| Lythrum virgatum | European wand loosestrife |  |
| Melilotus alba | white sweet clover |  |
| Melilotus officinalis | yellow sweet clover |  |
| Microstegium vimineum | Japanese stiltgrass |  |
| Miscanthus sinensis | Japanese plume grass, eulalia grass, eulalia |  |
| Miscanthus x giganteus | Giant Miscanthus |  |
| Morus alba | white mulberry |  |
| Myriophyllum aquaticum | parrotfeather, water-feather |  |
| Myriophyllum spicatum | Eurasian watermilfoil |  |
| Najas minor | brittle naiad, eutrophic water-nymph, brittle-leaf naiad |  |
| Nandina domestica | heavenly bamboo, sacred-bamboo |  |
| Onopordum acanthium | Scotch thistle, cotton thistle |  |
| Ornithogalum umbellatum | star of Bethlehem, dove's-dung, summer-snowflake, nap-at-noon |  |
| Pastinaca sativa | wild parsnip, Hart's-eye, bird's-nest |  |
| Paulownia tomentosa | princess tree, royal paulownia, empress tree |  |
| Perilla frutescens | beefsteak plant, Perilla mint, perilla |  |
| Persicaria perfoliata | mile-a-minute weed |  |
| Phalaris arundinacea | reed canary grass |  |
| Phellodendron amurense | amur corktree |  |
| Phragmites australis | common reed, carrizo |  |
| Phyllostachys aurea | golden bamboo |  |
| Populus alba | Silver poplar, white poplar, silver-leaf poplar |  |
| Potamogeton crispus | curly leaf pondweed, curly muck-weed |  |
| Prunus mahaleb | Mahaleb cherry, perfumed cherry, St. Lucie cherry |  |
| Pueraria montana var. lobata | Kudzu |  |
| Pyrus calleryana | ornamental pear, callery pear, Bradford pear |  |
| Quercus acutissima | saw tooth oak |  |
| Ranunculus ficaria | lesser celandine, pileword |  |
| Rhamnus cathartica | common buckthorn, European buckthorn |  |
| Rhamnus davurica | Dahurian buckthorn |  |
| Rhodotypos scandens | jetbead, Makino-black jetbead |  |
| Rosa multiflora | multiflora rose, baby rose |  |
| Rottboellia cochinchinensis | itchgrass |  |
| Rubus armeniacus | Himalayan blackberry |  |
| Rubus phoenicolasius | wine raspberry, Japanese wineberry |  |
| Saccharum ravennae | ravennagrass |  |
| Scabiosa atropurpurea | pincushion flower, mourning-bride, sweet scabious |  |
| Securigera varia | crown vetch, purple crownvetch, trailing crown-vetch, Axseed |  |
| Sesbania herbacea | hemp sesbania |  |
| Sesbania vesicaria | bagpod |  |
| Solanum viarum | tropical soda apple |  |
| Sonchus arvensis | field sowthistle, perennial sow-thistle |  |
| Sorghum halepense | Johnson grass |  |
| Sparganium erectum | simplestem bur-reed, exotic bur-reed |  |
| Tamarix chinensis | saltcedar |  |
| Tanacetum vulgare | common tansy, golden-buttons |  |
| Ulmus parvifolia | Lacebark elm, Chinese elm |  |
| Ulmus pumila | Siberian elm |  |
| Viburnum opulus | European cranberry bush |  |
| Vicia villosa | winter vetch, hairy vetch |  |
| Vinca minor | common periwinkle |  |
| Wisteria floribunda | Japanese wisteria |  |
| Wisteria sinensis | Chinese wisteria |  |
| Zelkova serrata | Japanese zelkova |  |
Note: Some species display blank maps because of insufficient review data to populate the map. The ‘insufficient data’ tag in the maps means that there were fewer than 3 reviews for that species/region. There is also a ‘no data’ tag for those without any reviews. These plants are included in the assessment list because they are known as invasive and/or are regulated in neighboring states.
What’s Next
This assessment will be updated every several years based on additional and on-going in-the-field observations and reviews.