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If you thought the sticky snakeroot, panic liverseed grass and broomrape sound unpleasant, wait until you see cogongrass. While it's not generally found in North Carolina, the state's Agriculture Department wants to keep it that way.

Cogongrass is described as one of the world's most invasive plants, a fast-growing dynamo that takes over forests and fields alike and is tougher to eliminate than spam e-mail.

The state this week banned the sale of the plant and its relatives, giving nurseries until the end of October to sell, ship or destroy them. At least one nursery in Guilford County sells the plant.

That includes related plants sometimes used for landscaping purposes, including Japanese blood grass, also known as Red Baron.

Linda Brandon , a master gardener with the Guilford cooperative extension, said the move makes sense, given the plant's aggressive tendencies.

"That's a nasty plant," she said. "It doesn't take much for one of those things to get out of control."

The plant spreads quickly and has aggressive roots and seeds, making it a "double threat," Brandon said. It chokes out native species, renders pastures inedible and catches fire easily.

The plant is found largely in a wide belt stretching from Texas to South Carolina, and officials in that area are fighting the plant's spread.

In South Carolina, Clemson University recently required a volunteer group to track down the plant with the aim of destroying cogongrass before it spreads.

In North Carolina, cogongrass was already considered a noxious weed.

Deborah Pinkos , manager of the Green View Garden Center, said the nursery stocks Japanese blood grass, a cogongrass relative, but that it hasn't been a big seller.

"It's very pretty," she said, adding that the center has sold the grass for use as a potted plant, to limit its ability to spread.

The problem with Japanese blood grass is that it can become invasive. Those with the grass in their gardens aren't required to take it out, although they are encouraged to monitor it closely.

Japanese blood grass is relatively rare here, Brandon said, being more of a specialty grass than a common landscaping tool.

Brandon had some in her garden a decade ago. The plant was beautiful, going from green on the bottom to red on top, she said, although for whatever reason, it proved less hearty than the kind found in the wild.
"My dogs ate it," she said.

Unfortunately, the cogongrass spreading across the south has proved less susceptible to Fido.

And unlike kudzu, no one has figured out how to make ice cream out of cogongrass.

Contact Jason Hardin at 373-7021 or at jason.hardin@news-record.com