''Lagarosiphon major'' is a monocotic

aquatic plant Aquatic plants are plants that have adapted to living in aquatic environments ( saltwater or freshwater). They are also referred to as hydrophytes or macrophytes to distinguish them from algae and other microphytes. A macrophyte is a plant that ...

native to

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

. Common names include African elodea, curly waterweed, oxygen weed and South African oxygen weed. It is used as freshwater aquarium plant. It is an invasive plant in some countries. In

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...

it is listed on the National Pest Plant Accord and is classed as a noxious weed in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. ''Lagarosiphon Major'' was added to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

List of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern In 2016, following the EU Regulation 1143/2014 on Invasive Alien Species (IAS), the European Commission published a first list of 37 IAS of Union concern. The list was first updated in 2017 and comprised 49 species. Since the second update in 201 ...

on 3 August 2016. This means - amongst other things- that it is illegal to sell this plant in the whole of the European Union or to dump it in the environment.

Distribution

Ireland: Co.Galway in parts of upper Lough Corrib.Pybus, C. and O'Halloran, P. 2009. Distribution of some submerged aquatic macrophytes in the Eglinton Canal. ''Ir. Nat. J.'' 30: 51-53.

References

External links

Global Invasive Species Database

Species Profile - Oxygen Weed (''Lagarosiphon major'').
National Invasive Species Information Center, United States National Agricultural Library Hydrocharitaceae Flora of Southern Africa Freshwater plants {{monocot-stub