Family: Poaceae
High Risk Traits:
- Broad climate suitability
- Naturalized on Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii (Hawaiian Islands) and elsewhere worldwide
- A disturbance-adapted weed that may impact agriculture and the natural environment (in Australia)
- Other Avena species are invasive weeds
- Allelopathic
- May cause photosensitization or nitrate poisoning under certain conditions
- Tolerates many soil types
- Reproduces by seeds
- Hybridizes with other Avena species
- Self-fertile
- Reaches maturity in one growing season
- Seeds dispersed as a produce and soil contaminant, by vehicles, animals, birds and possibly water, as well as through intentional cultivation
- Seeds can form a persistent seed bank
Low Risk Traits:
- Cultivated oats are domesticated and pose less risk of invasiveness than weedy races present elsewhere in the world
- Used as a palatable pasture species in the Hawaiian Islands, with no negative impacts reported, despite long history of cultivation
- Unarmed (no spines, thorns, or burrs)
- Palatable
- Grows best in high light environments (dense shade may inhibit spread)
- Herbicides may provide effective control