Federal Noxious Weed Disseminules of the United States

This interactive tool provides photographs, text, and keys that aid in determining whether or not an unknown disseminule (e.g., seed, fruit) found as a contaminant in imported botanicals and agricultural products is a federal noxious weed (FNW) and is therefore actionable. The total list of 114 FNW taxa is broken down into smaller groupings, first by Disseminule type—Spores vs. Vegetative vs. Fruits & Seeds. This page describes the various types of disseminules represented within the tool. Taxa with spore and vegetative disseminules are described in fact sheets. The taxa with fruit and seed disseminules (further broken down into three groupings: Poaceae, Fabaceae, and Other Families) can be separated using one of the three associated keys. A Key to Keys assists the user in deciding which of these three keys is appropriate to use for taxon identification. Fact sheets for each FNW taxon pull together relevant descriptions, including distinguishing characteristics and photographs.