Invasive plants are plant species that can be harmful when introduced into new areas. These species can invade agricultural and natural areas, causing serious damage to Canada's economy and environment.
Invasive plants in crops and pastures cost an estimated $2.2 billion each year by reducing crop yields and quality, and increasing costs of weed control and harvesting.
How to identify them
This list includes quarantine or regulated non-quarantine pests. Regulated non-quarantine pest may already be established in specific areas of Canada. Contact the CFIA if a pest is found in an area where it is currently not known to occur.
- Chinese yam – Dioscorea polystachya
- Common crupina – Crupina vulgaris
- Dallis grass – Paspalum dilatatum
- Devil's-tail tearthumb – Persicaria perfoliata
- Giant reed – Arundo donax L.
- Iberian starthistle – Centaurea iberica
- Japanese stiltgrass – Microstegium vimineum
- Jointed goatgrass – Aegilops cylindrica
- Kudzu – Pueraria montana
- Paterson's curse – Echium plantagineum
- Serrated tussock – Nassella trichotoma
- Silverleaf nightshade – Solanum elaeagnifolium
- Slender foxtail – Alopecurus myosuroides
- South African ragwort – Senecio inaequidens and Madagascar Ragwort – Senecio madagascariensis
- Syrian bean-caper – Zygophyllum fabago
- Woolly cup grass – Eriochloa villosa
- Yellow starthistle – Centaurea solstitialis
What the CFIA is doing about invasive plants
As Canada's national plant protection organization, the CFIA:
- regulates the import, sale and movement of plants into, and within, Canada;
- monitors imports to prevent entry of invasive plants; and
- conducts surveillance to determine if an invasive plant is here, or to confirm that an area is free of a specific invasive plant.
The invasive plants regulated under the Plant Protection Act are included in the list of Pests Regulated by Canada. The invasive plants regulated under the Seeds Act are listed in the Weed Seeds Order, 2016.
More information
- D-12-01: Phytosanitary requirements to prevent the introduction of plants regulated as pests in Canada
- Invasive Plants Policy
- Invasive Plants Field Guide
- Notice of decision: Arundo donax (giant reed) a regulated pest plant for Canada
- Plant pest surveillance
- Questions and Answers
- Reporting and disposing of unsolicited seeds
- Weed Risk Analysis Documents