smallcraft50 – posted 04 September 2002 13:57
Where does Zoysia come from? Is it genetically engineered? Does it threaten indigenous plants? Animals? Would one want to introduce it to ones wooded, mountaintop home? Will it take over or choke out beneficial plants? My home is not only home to my family and our pets but also a great many wild birds and animals. If anyone has any information along these lines, I would appreciate it.
seed – posted 07 September 2002 20:12
smallcraft50, the short answer is that, in my opinion, zoysia is an exotic of probably little weedy concern, but caution should always be used. (I am assuming with little basis that you are writing from somewhere in North America.)
Zoysiagrasses are from Asia (see details*, below) and the types represented in the United States as cultivated turfgrasses are primarily vegetatively propagated clones that have appeared in nature, or have resulted from artificial interspecific hybridization by traditional breeding methods, not modern genetic engineering.
Zoysiagrasses are slow growing and persistent because of deep rhizomes, thus they can be somewhat invasive, particularly around home sites, and hard to eradicate. Seed production occurs but is probably not a major means of dispersal. Zoysiagrasses are not considered weeds in the wild, as far as I can determine, and the people who have asked me about eradicating zoysia are those who are trying to replace it with a different species of turfgrass.
I have looked for references in various Exotic Plant Pest Councils, indicating weedy, invasive reports for zoysia, and I have so far found none, e.g., “no evidence of wildland threat” http://www.caleppc.org/info/99notlisted.html
Zoysiagrasses persist in light shade, but should not be a problem in the woods. Zoysiagrasses do not vine into other plants, and they generally spread from underground. In Florida, the rhizomes can work their way into the bark of certain plants, and around the base of palms. Usually the problem is trying to grow zoysiagrass, but I can imagine a situation in a heavier soil where zoysiagrass could obtain a small foothold on the margin of the woods.
Phil
* Species of the genus Zoysia are native to East Asia, Southeast Asia, Malesia and the southwest Pacific from Japan and Korea south to the Phlippines, Malaysia, and Timor. There are old, disjunct occurrences in Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, and elsewhere in the Indian Ocean and Africa, but those may be outside of its native range. It has been used in Japan in gardens of spiritual importance, for about 1000 years.