United States Department of Agriculture-Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
Plant Protection and Quarantine-Center for Plant Health Science and Technology

This database has been derived from the "Federal Noxious Weed Inspection Guide - Noxious Weed Inspection System" which was prepared in 1991 by Dr. Randy G. Westbrooks, USDA-APHIS-PPQ. The database contains fields such as scientific name, family name, synonym(s), common name(s), diagnostic characteristics, habitat, distribution outside of the U.S., distribution within the United States (if applicable), reason for   listing as a Federal Noxious Weed (FNW), what form of the plant is most likely to enter the United States, likely pathways of entry into the United States, general notes, photographs (if available) line drawings, distribution maps (if available), etc.

The distribution data (January 1, 1999) is from a commercially available interactive database on CD entitled "Synthesis of North American Fauna" by John Kartesz (North Carolina Botanical Garden, University of North Carolina) and Christopher Meacham (Jephson Herbarium, University of California, Brekeley).

Taxonomic nomenclature follows that available at the GRIN web site:

The Federal Noxious Weed Act (FNWA) was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1974 and signed into law by President Gerald Ford in January 1975. After this, a technical committee of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scientists was formed to recommend foreign species to be listed under the Act. The initial list of 26 taxa was established in 1976.