''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 of ...

. 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 An invasive species otherwise known as an alien is an introduced organism that becomes overpopulated and harms its new environment. Although most introduced species are neutral or beneficial with respect to other species, invasive species ad ...

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 count ...

it is listed on the

National Pest Plant Accord The National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) is a New Zealand agreement that identifies pest plants that are prohibited from sale and commercial propagation and distribution. The Accord initially came into effect on 1 October 2001 between regional coun ...

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 primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. ''Lagarosiphon Major'' was added to the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

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 The United States National Agricultural Library (NAL) is one of the world's largest agricultural research libraries, and serves as a national library of the United States and as the library of the United States Department of Agriculture. Located ...

Hydrocharitaceae Flora of Southern Africa Freshwater plants {{monocot-stub