Wavyleaf Grass (Oplismenus undulatifolius) arrived in the United States in 1996 and in Virginia in 2003. It rapidly spread into Shenandoah National Park, where it forms dense mats across the forest floor, shading out our native flora and preventing forest regeneration.

Wavyleaf has extremely sticky seeds that attach to animal fur, bird feathers, and hikers’ pants, and this allows the plants to disperse quickly across very wide areas.

When a new invasive species arrives in an area, the best strategy is called Early Detection Rapid Response (EDRR). According to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, “This includes monitoring habitats to discover new species soon after introduction, reporting sightings of previously unknown species in an area, and working quickly to keep the species from becoming established and spreading.”

Since 2018, Blue Ridge PRISM has partnered with the Virginia Department of Forestry and Shenandoah National Park to seek and control spreading populations of Wavyleaf across eight locations in central Virginia.

In 2024, PRISM found that the Elkton Wavyleaf site showed significant reduction in size, demonstrating that applying treatment consistently for five years is a successful means of controlling this threat.

The treatment window for controlling Wavyleaf is only six weeks each year, and runs from June 1 through July 15. This require an all-hands-on-deck approach and exhausts all available contractor, volunteer, and professional resources available across our geography during this time. The terrain is rough and the temperatures can be brutal.

Our hope is that enough funding will continue to be available in future years to get ahead of Wavyleaf’s spread throughout the northern Blue Ridge mountains. Without this funding, our forests and all the life within will be severely threatened.