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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Albany, California » Western Regional Research Center » Invasive Species and Pollinator Health » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #419485
Research Project: Integrated Weed Management and Restoration Strategies to Protect Water Resources and Aquatic and Wetland Ecosystems of the Far Western U.S.

Location: Invasive Species and Pollinator Health

Title: Invasive Eelgrass Hybrid, Vallisneria × pseudorosulata in the Southeastern United States

Author
item GEBHART, MAXWELL - Mississippi State University
item SCHMID, SAMUEL - Mississippi State University
item TURNER, STEPHEN - Tennessee Valley Authority
item WEBB, DAVID - Tennessee Valley Authority
item THUMB, RYAN - Montana State University
item Beets, Jens
item TURNAGE, GRAY - Mississippi State University

Submitted to: Invasive Plant Science and Management
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 11/15/2024
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Vallisneria L. is an important genus of submersed macrophytes that have often been a major target for phytoremediation and restoration efforts. There has been a steady decline of the species throughout many aquatic systems and most of the current research on Vallisneria has focused on how to restore the plants on the landscape and reasons why native species may be disappearing. However, there has been a sudden and rapid invasion by a hybrid, Vallisneria × pseudorosulata S.Fujii & M.Maki which has received increasing attention in the past 5 years. ). Vallisneria × pseudorosulata has infested the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) system which the population is thought to have established sometime between 2018 and 2019. The introduction into the TVA system is not an isolated event as V. × pseudorosulata has been found in multiple systems in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, and recently Mississippi.

Technical Abstract: Vallisneria × pseudorosulata S.Fujii & M.Maki is an invasive aquatic weed that has recently become a major issue within the southeast U.S. V. × pseudorosulata is a hybrid between two non-native eelgrass species (Vallisneria spiralis L. and Vallisneria denseserrulata Makino) and has rapidly overtaken waterbodies in Tennessee, Alabama, and Florida. This hybrid can reproduce rapidly through offshoot formation and floating propagules capable of drifting large distances before establishing. V. × pseudorosulata has been previously found in Japan and is thought to have been introduced in the U.S. by the aquarium trade or dumping.