An official website of the United States government.

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

National Invasive Species Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
  1. Home
  2. Terrestrial Invasives
  3. Terrestrial Plants
  4. Medusahead

Medusahead

Scientific Name

Taeniatherum caput-medusae (L.) Nevski (ITIS)

Common Name

Medusahead, medusa's head, medusahead rye, medusahead grass

Synonym

Elymus caput-medusae L.; Taeniatherum asperum(Simonkai) Nevski; Hordeum caput-medusae (L.) Crosson & Durand (ITIS)

Native To

Mediterranean Region (Archer 2001)

Date of U.S. Introduction

First discovered in 1887 (DiTomaso et al. 2008)

Means of Introduction

Introduced as a seed contaminant (DiTomaso et al. 2008)

Impact

Crowds out native species and forage for livestock (Archer 2001)

Medusahead

Medusahead

Credit

Photo by Steve Dewey; Utah State University

Source
Invasive.org.

Find more images

Distribution / Maps / Survey Status

Videos

All Resources

View and Filter All Medusahead Resources

Selected Resources

The section below contains highly relevant resources for this species, organized by source.

Council or Task Force
Partnership
Federal Government
State and Local Government
Academic
Professional
Citations