Noxious weed introduced in U.S.; sold as pond plant

DENVER - 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 fear that the bulbous, reedy plant may be impossible to trace because of cash sales.

"We're hoping to get as many of them out of circulation as possible," said Randy Westbrooks, coordinator of the 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 bur reed, or sparganium erectum, the weed can choke waterways and interfere with recreation in shallow waters without its natural predators. The 6-foot-long, green reed has a small yellow flower that contains a bur-like fruit.

Federal plant inspectors inadvertently allowed about 4,200 bur 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 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. "You can say our folks on this side were kind of lulled into this. They didn't look at all the paperwork," he said.

Jerry Shields, a spokesman for the 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 importation of the plants, said they have reached 35 states. That was based on an estimate, however, and no list was immediately 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 separate divisions of Home Depot, not to individual stores.

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

"USDA has accepted that the importation of the Sparganium erectum was an accident and that Garden State Bulb Co. was unaware that the plant is on the federal noxious weeds list," said a letter from Alexander F. Nappi of the department's New Jersey office.

Colorado weed coordinator Eric Lane said state officials planned to write the federal department to request a review of procedures.

"It needs to be corrected, especially if plants like these are going to get into Wal-Marts or Home Depots," he said. "Even if they recover 95 percent of it there would still be 5 percent of them out there and that's not good.

"The only thing that could be worse would be to start mixing it into the little shaker seed canisters that nurseries sell."

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