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

Witchweed

Scientific Name

Striga asiatica (L.) Kuntze (ITIS)

Common Name

Witchweed, Asiatic witchweed, red witchweed

Synonym

Striga lutea Lour. (ITIS)

Native To

Africa (Tasker and Westwood 2012)

Date of U.S. Introduction

First identified in North Carolina in 1956 (Tasker and Westwood 2012)

Means of Introduction

Accidental (Spallek et al. 2013)

Impact

Parasitic plant that attacks agricultural crops, including corn, sorghum, sugar cane, and rice (Nail et al. 2014)

Current U.S. Distribution

North Carolina, South Carolina

Witchweed - Invasive.org

Witchweed, parasitic plants

Credit

Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services

Source
Invasive.org.

Find more images

Spotlights

  • Controlling Witchweed Infestations in Africa

    • Aug 5, 2019

    • Cornell University. College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Cornell Alliance for Science.

    • Farmers who grow cereal crops in most African countries are all too familiar with the challenges presented by striga, a parasitic plant also known as witchweed that infests farmers’ fields and causes lower yields, or even no harvest at all. Now African scientists are breeding maize that can resist this pest plant as extension agents are offering farmers various solutions for improving yields in areas where the invasive weed is especially prevalent.

Distribution / Maps / Survey Status

Federally Regulated

Videos

Selected Resources

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

View All Witchweed Resources
Partnership
Federal Government
International Government
State and Local Government
Academic
Citations