An assessment of garlic mustard in northern U.S. forests

Abstract

This publication is part of a series that provides an overview of the presence of invasive plant species monitored on an extensive systematic network of plots measured by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the U.S. Forest Service, Northern Research Station (NRS). Each research note features one of the invasive plants monitored on forested plots by FIA in the 24 states of the Midwestern and Northeastern United States. Garlic mustard (Alliaria petiolata) was introduced by settlers for medicinal and culinary use in the 1800s (Czarapata 2005, Kaufman and Kaufman 2007, Rodgers et al. 2008). In eastern North America this aggressive invader has become one of the most rapidly increasing woodland invasive plant species (Welk et al. 2002), spreading across North America and Canada at a rate of nearly 2,500 square miles per year (Rodgers et al. 2008).