A reference table separating the sterile cultivars used in Vetiver Grass Technology from the fertile, seed-bearing accessions that carry the invasiveness record
Invasiveness in vetiver is a property of the genotype, not of the species. The material used in Vetiver Grass Technology (VGT) across the world is a sterile, vegetatively propagated clone that sets no viable seed and does not runner; it stays where it is planted and is trimmed at the hedge boundary. The documented weed record attaches to the other end of the plant — fertile, seed-producing accessions, chiefly the wild North Indian type of C. zizanioides and, within its own native range, the African species C. nigritanus. The table below sorts the genotypes into fertility/safety tiers so that this distinction is visible at a glance.
Establishment is vegetative in every case. All VGT plantings are raised from slips (crown division), never sown. Because the recommended clones combine seed sterility with a non-running, clumping habit, neither reproductive route is open to them — which is why, in four decades of field use, the sterile cultivar has nowhere been reported to behave as an invader.
| Genotype / cultivar | Species | Region / origin | Reproduction & fertility | Weed / invasiveness status |
| Tier 1 — Sterile / effectively sterile: recommended for Vetiver Grass Technology | ||||
| ‘Sunshine’ clone (regional names: ‘Monto’, ‘Vallonia’, ‘Boucard’, ‘Huffman’, ‘Haiti’, ‘Fiji’) | C. zizanioides | A single pantropical clone; earliest authenticated lines Vallonia (S. Africa via Mauritius, c.1900), Monto (Australia, 1930s), Sunshine (USA, 1960s) | Sterile, non-seeding; distributed only by vegetative cuttings. The one clone found in 88% of samples from 29 countries outside South Asia (Adams). | Low risk: scored −8 under the Hawaii-Pacific WRA (PIER); Australian seed-head screening of the clone found no viable caryopses; no documented escape in four decades of use. |
| ‘Sierra’ | C. zizanioides | Caribbean Area (USDA-NRCS selection) | Essentially sterile; chosen from eight genotypes specifically for its sterility. | Safe for conservation plantings; the selection made expressly to avoid the seeding types. |
| CIMAP-KH 40 (CIMAP-KHUS 40) | C. zizanioides (autotetraploid) | CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Seed-infertile; bred by colchicine doubling expressly to be non-seeding. | Developed for non-invasive ecological, carbon-sequestration and soil-conservation use. |
| CIMAP-FORAGIKA | C. zizanioides (diploid, 2n=20) | CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India | Flowers normally, but the seed it bears is sterile and does not germinate. | Bred for seed sterility to ensure non-invasiveness in ecological plantings (also a forage type). |
| Tier 2 — Cultivated and low-seeding, but not certified sterile | ||||
| South Indian cultivated landrace | C. zizanioides | South India — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh | Late/low flowering with high pollen sterility and low seed-set; sets fertile seed (10–15% germination) when grown under North Indian conditions. | Low practical risk in its home region; not guaranteed sterile if moved north. Basis of most VGT research. |
| KS-2 (CIMAP-KS-2) | C. zizanioides (South Indian type) | CSIR-CIMAP; South Indian cultivated group | Low/late flowering, relatively low seed-set; not certified seed-infertile. | Low-but-not-zero risk; not a certified hedgerow clone. |
| Sugandha | C. zizanioides (colchicine-induced tetraploid) | CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow | Polyploid; fertility depressed, but released as an oil cultivar and not certified seed-sterile. | Reduced risk, but sterility not verified for hedgerow use. |
| Tier 3 — Fertile / seed-setting (oil or wild types): not for hedgerow introduction | ||||
| North Indian wild type (“khus”) | C. zizanioides | North India — Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan; riverbanks and marshy land | Profuse flowering, high seed-set (germination up to ~50%). | The fertile accession behind the weed record; should never be used for conservation plantings. |
| KS-1 | C. zizanioides (Bharatpur / North type) | CSIR-CIMAP; recommended for Assam | North-origin selection; seed-capable. | Oil variety; not a certified sterile hedgerow clone. |
| Dharini | C. zizanioides (CIMAP, 1998) | CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow | Early flowering, anthers and stigma present; dual-purpose oil / soil-binding selection. | Flowering and seed-capable; treat as fertile. |
| Gulabi | C. zizanioides (CIMAP, 1998) | CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow | Late flowering; tolerant of sodic/alkaline and waterlogged soils. | Tempting for restoration on difficult land, but flowers and carries seed risk. |
| Kesari | C. zizanioides (CIMAP, 1998) | CSIR-CIMAP, Lucknow | Flowering oil selection (saffron-note oil). | Flowering and seed-capable; treat as fertile. |
| Pusa Hybrid-7, Hybrid-8 | C. zizanioides (IARI hybrids) | IARI (Pusa), New Delhi | North × South hybrids; fertility variable. | Oil selections; sterility not established. |
| CIMAP-KHUSINOLIKA | C. zizanioides (short-duration clone) | CSIR-CIMAP; selected from Uttar Pradesh wild populations | Selected for khusinol-rich oil under short duration; derived from seeding North Indian populations. | Oil clone; sterility not established. |
| Separate species — African vetiver | ||||
| C. nigritanus (black / African vetiver; syn. Vetiveria nigritana) | C. nigritanus | Tropical & southern Africa — Nigeria, the Sahel, East & Southern Africa, Senegal | Fertile; seeds freely, though the large seeds tend to remain near the mother plant. | Native floodplain / riverbank grass. Use only where endemic; not for introduction beyond its native range. Not documented as an aggressive invader within its niche. |
Notes
- The world crop is essentially one clone — a genetic vulnerability. Because vetiver spreads only by cuttings, the single ‘Sunshine’ genotype now forms a near-monoculture across the tropics, so a pest or disease adapting to it could spread through plantings everywhere. Adams identified other distinct non-fertile genotypes — American Vetiver Corp., ‘Karnataka’, and the Thailand accessions (Songkhla, Surat Thani, Sri Lanka) — and placed them in trials expressly to broaden the erosion-control germplasm base.
- Nomenclature: Vetiveria zizanioides = Chrysopogon zizanioides; Vetiveria nigritana = Chrysopogon nigritanus. The genus name changed; the plants did not.
- DNA fingerprinting (Adams et al., 1998) showed that the vetiver cultivated worldwide is essentially a single clonal, non-fertile cultigen — the genetic basis for its uniform, non-invasive behaviour.
- “Sterile” in the Indian oil trade often means low seed-set or high pollen sterility rather than true seed-infertility. Only the purpose-bred clones (CIMAP-KH 40, CIMAP-FORAGIKA) and the long-established Sunshine / Monto / Sierra clones are treated here as reliably non-seeding.
- Several minor Indian releases (for example CIM-Vridhi, G15, G22, KH-8, ODV-3, Nilambore) are omitted because their fertility status is not clearly documented; they should not be assumed sterile.
- A weed-list entry is not the same as documented invasion. Whole-species and precautionary listings (CABI; Randall’s Global Compendium of Weeds; some jurisdictional flags) generally target fertile accessions; where a quantitative screen has been run on the actual VGT plant, it passes.
Sources
1 USDA-NRCS. Plant Guide — ‘Sunshine’ Vetivergrass, Chrysopogon zizanioides (Joy, 2009). Hoʻolehua, Hawaii Plant Materials Center.
2 PIER / Hawaii-Pacific Weed Risk Assessment. Chrysopogon zizanioides ‘Sunshine’ — low risk, score −8 (hear.org/pier).
3 Plant Pono. Chrysopogon zizanioides risk assessment — wild (seeding) type rated high-risk; ‘Sunshine’ recommended as the non-invasive alternative.
4 Adams, R.P., Zhong, M., Turuspekov, Y., Dafforn, M.R. & Veldkamp, J.F. (1998). DNA fingerprinting reveals clonal nature of Vetiveria zizanioides (L.) Nash. Molecular Ecology 7(7): 813–818. Also: Adams, R.P. (2000). DNA Analysis of the Genetic Diversity of Vetiver and Future Selections for Use in Erosion Control. Proc. Second International Conference on Vetiver (ICV-2), ORDPB, Bangkok — the primary account of the single-clone finding and the candidate germplasm for broadening the base.
5 Grimshaw, R.G. Ecological Impact of Vetiver in Foreign Environments. The Vetiver Network International, vetiver.org.
6 CABI Compendium. Chrysopogon zizanioides (vetiver) datasheet — identity, distribution, biology, impacts.
7 The Vetiver Network International. Vetiver Grass — The Plant (vetiver.org): sterile cultivars recommended for VGT; C. nigritanus seeds freely and should be used only where endemic.
8 CSIR-CIMAP variety releases and plant patents — CIMAP-KH 40 (autotetraploid, seed-infertile); CIMAP-FORAGIKA (seed-sterile diploid); CIMAP-KHUSINOLIKA; and the oil/dual-purpose cultivars KS-1, KS-2, Sugandha, Dharini, Gulabi, Kesari.
9 Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew — Plants of the World Online. Chrysopogon nigritanus: native range tropical & southern Africa; perennial floodplain/riverbank grass.
The Vetiver Network International (TVNI) · Global Vetiver Farmer Demonstration-Trial Program · http://www.vetiver.org · 2026