Once the king of Mississippi’s invasive plant species, kudzu could take a back seat to another non-native species creeping into Warren County and threatening to cause even more problems for native flora and fauna habitats.

Like the land-smothering, tree-climbing Asian vine, cogon grass chokes out other plant species. However, cogon grass has other – and more dangerous – traits. It grows under more varied conditions than kudzu, it is much more difficult to control and it poses a fire hazard.

“We rank it the worst weed problem in the state,” said Benny Graves, director of the Mississippi Department of Agriculture Plant Pest Division. “We’re not going to eradicate it in Mississippi, but we might be able to eradicate it in Warren County because there’s not a lot of it there yet that we are aware of.”

It is not known exactly how many acres of cogon grass are growing in this area, Graves said. The largest known patch of the grass, also from Asia, is in a 4-acre field east of U.S. 61 near River Region Medical Center, RiverHills Bank and BancorpSouth. The proximity of the cogon grass patch to the 1,800-acre Vicksburg National Military Park, which is already infested with kudzu, worries park administrators.

“It’s not that far away from the park, which is very scary,” said Virginia Dubowy, park natural resources program manager. “So far it has not been discovered in the park.”

Cogon grass develops 3,000 fluffy seeds per plant that, much like dandelion seeds, can be carried up to 15 miles away from the plant when airborne. Warren County Extension Service Director John Coccaro said the grass could easily spread to the park and become a major problem before administrators could do anything about it.

If you have cogon grassThe Mississippi Department of Agriculture Plant Pest Division directs a cogon grass control program providing information and herbicides to landowners with infested properties. For program information, contact Benny Graves at benny@mdac.state.ms.us or 662-325-7773.”We have a national treasure here that is in real danger,” he said.

An exotic and invasive plant team applies herbicides in the park twice a year to try to eliminate kudzu, said Dubowy. She said the park is aware of the nearby growth and will attempt to eliminate any cogon grass as soon as it is found in the park.

Not only could cogon grass choke out other plant life in the VNMP and other forested areas of Warren County, it also poses a threat to animal habitat. The grass is too dense for ground-nesting birds to make homes in or for grazing animals to eat.

“For a cow it’s like chewing a mouth full of sand,” said Coccaro.

While kudzu needs a lot of sun to grow, cogon grass thrives in sunny and shady environments and will grow in all varieties of soils. Its dense nature and fluffy seeds also make it a fire hazard, and its seeds spread much easier than kudzu.

“It moves very quickly along power line and highway right of ways because the seeds are transferred by mowing equipment,” Graves said.

Coccaro said hotel and other commercial development along Interstate 20, where the ground is currently bare, could also be prime areas for cogon grass to take root.

The Mississippi Cogon Grass Task Force, of which the state agriculture department is the lead of 19 supporting agencies, has spent about $200,000 a year since 2003 trying to control the grass, said Graves. The task force provides information about cogon grass and herbicides.

There is currently no single herbicide that has been shown to effectively kill cogon grass, but a combination of herbicides such as Roundup and Arsenal are generally used with some success if application is routine, said Coccaro.

Cogon grass first arrived in the United States in 1911 near Mobile, Ala., as a packing material in shipments from the Far East. In the 1920s it was promoted as an erosion control plant species in many Southern states, just as kudzu was also promoted at one time. In 1979, 19 southern Mississippi counties had confirmed cogon grass growth. Today, 63 of 82 counties in the state have cogon grass. It is also found in the entire state of Florida, as well as in southern portions of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and east Texas.