Pampas Grass
This puffy plant is all over social media feeds. It’s a driving force in home decor blog posts and the boho wedding aesthetic, and it’s even sold in dried bundles on Etsy. But despite its many creative uses, it is an invasive grass that is wrecking havoc on other plants.
Originally from countries in South American including Argentina and Brazil, pampas grass can survive drought, frost, and intense sunlight. If too many floofy pampas stems show up in an environment, they lower the amount of biodiversity there, according to a California wildlife guide. And one stem can carry millions of seeds that spread in the breeze.
Online guides suggest using herbicides on this plant, but to avoid spreading chemicals into the ground and towards other plants, just rip it out of the ground. You can also burn pampas to kill it or dig up the plants’ root system to ensure that it won’t grow back.
