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Monkeygrass

Ophiopogon japonicum (accepted: Ophiopogon japonicus) · Asparagaceae · all Ophiopogon records

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Fire-resistant — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 4 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Alabama; Australian Capital Territory, Australia; Georgetown, Texas; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia; Michigan / Great Lakes; Tennessee; Virginia / Mid-Atlantic
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

Typed publication scope: 8 scopes across 6 cited fire sources

Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes · Official scoped edition
- AL; partial normalized coverage
  The Alabama Forestry Commission's five-page AFC-FP-04 booklet is an Alabama publication and contains 31 printed suggested or fire-prone plant occurrences. FireApproved publishes 27 exact species or genus owners and holds one infraspecific form plus two named cultivars; this historical source scope does not establish current site suitability for a particular Alabama property.
Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) · Official scoped edition
- MD; partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-08
  Maryland Forest Service says the list contains plants that can be grown in Maryland and identifies Maryland natives. FireApproved publishes 169 exact source owners from the 180 printed rows; an unrepresentable form and duplicate-owner rows are not broadened. The list calls itself non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every Maryland site.
- NJ; partial normalized coverage
  New Jersey DEP publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in New Jersey and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and does not establish suitability for every New Jersey site or override the Pinelands Commission's separate placement and fuel-break rules.
- WV; partial normalized coverage · 2026-08-26
  West Virginia Division of Forestry publishes a state edition saying the listed plants can be grown in West Virginia and are relatively resistant to fire. Its same 180 printed taxon occurrences map to the 169 conservative owners already normalized for the template family. The list is non-comprehensive and provides no comparative or site-specific rating.
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · Official scoped edition
- MI; partial normalized coverage · 2007-01-01
  Michigan State University Extension Bulletin E2948 is explicitly a list of wildfire-resistant landscape plants for Michigan and includes a Michigan-native field. FireApproved publishes 221 exact GBIF owners from 226 represented source rows and holds 15 complex or non-exact rows. This dated publication scope is not a current site-suitability determination.
Firewise Plant Guide · Official scoped edition
- Sun City Texas, Georgetown (TX footprint); partial normalized coverage · 2015-01-14
  The guide is authored for the Sun City Texas community in Georgetown. FireApproved publishes 142 exact owners only as community-level context. It is an archived HOA exhibit with unknown rating lineage, not a current statewide Texas source or an independent Tier 1 determination.
Landscaping Guidelines to Protect Your Home from Wildfire (SP685) · Official scoped edition
- TN; partial normalized coverage · 2006-10-24
  University of Tennessee Extension SP685 is Tennessee landscape guidance and publishes 78 represented plant owners. Most table rows are a carrier of Virginia Firescapes rather than an independent rating; Tennessee source scope does not change that lineage or establish site suitability.
Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) · Official scoped edition
- VA; partial normalized coverage · 2009-04-15
  Virginia Cooperative Extension's publication opens with Virginia wildfire conditions, identifies its Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force, and labels plants native to Virginia. FireApproved publishes 306 exact source owners. Publication scope does not establish parcel suitability or current endorsement of this archived 2009 list.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: Documented in VA.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: 1 sourced range or established record; set a location to match them. This is not an invasive warning.
USDA hardiness: Documented range 6–9.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Monkeygrass (Ophiopogon japonicum) — Photo: (c) Colin Meurk, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (CC BY-SA), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: groundcover
USDA hardiness: 6–9
Grows in: VA
Rated in: Alabama; Australian Capital Territory, Australia; Georgetown, Texas; Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia +3
Family: Asparagaceae
Evidence: 7 cited sources

Plant hardiness evidence

These values describe the plant source. Your ZIP zone comes from the separate 2023 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map. Whole-zone values stay whole-zone, and a single unresolved value is not treated as a tolerance range. Different source boundaries stay separate: overlapping statements are compared independently, while only ranges with no shared zone are called a conflict.

Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) · record perennial:Ophiopogon japonicum · New, January 2007 · as of 2026-08-26

6–9 explicit range · whole zone precision · source stated

Source taxon: Ophiopogon japonicum · exact match.

Source location: Table 1, perennial row.

Where its sources say to plant it

Placement rules below use each source's own distances or named zones, tied to its rating. They are not interchangeable with the directory's current Zone 0 guidance.

Firewise Plant Guide: Groundcover [Sun City plant-table sections] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Landscaping Plants: Ground Covers; Herbaceous Annuals and Perennials [Maryland Firewise plant-form tables] (with its recommendation)
Canberra Plant Selector: filtered result page 13 [canberra-selector] (with its recommendation)
Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes: Suggested ground covers [Alabama Forestry Commission booklet section] (with its recommendation)

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Recommends (7)

Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300) — Virginia Cooperative Extension / Virginia Tech (Appleton, Frenzel, Hillegass, Lyons, Steward — Virginia Firewise Landscaping Task Force) · 2009 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated lineage: ufifas-srs-tree

“L flammability”

Good for erosion control, drought tolerant. Prefers warm climates.
Landscaping Guidelines to Protect Your Home from Wildfire (SP685) — University of Tennessee Extension · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: ufifas-srs-tree resolves to Virginia Firescapes — Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes (430-300)

“listed Firewise plant”
Wildfire-resistant Landscape Plants for Michigan (Extension Bulletin E2948) — Michigan State University Extension (Hansen, Fernandez) · New, January 2007 · original source Primary evidence Expert-curated

“considered wildfire-resistant and are recommended for Michigan’s climate”

Table 1 row: Ophiopogon japonicum (Mondo grass).
Firewise Plant Guide — Sun City Texas Firewise Group · updated January 14, 2015 · original source Corroboration HOA exhibit lineage: unknown

“low”

The table rates Monkey Grass — Ophiopogon japonicus low for flammability hazard, defined as the ease a plant can burn at high temperatures for a prolonged time.
Firewise Landscaping Plants (Maryland, New Jersey, and West Virginia editions) — Maryland DNR, New Jersey DEP, and West Virginia Division of Forestry · 2015 archived PDF · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: md-nj-wv-template-family

“relatively resistant to fire”

Listed as Ophiopogon japonicus (Monkeygrass, Dwarf Mondo Grass); Ophiopogon japonicus (Monkeygrass, Dwarf Mondo Grass). The source says listed species exhibit stronger resistance to ignition by wildfires. Source comments: Good for erosion control in warm climates. Drought tolerant Good erosion control, drought tolerant. Prefers warm climates
Canberra Plant Selector — fire-retardant attribute — ACT Government / Everyday Climate Choices · live tool capture 2026-08-25 · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: act-fire-retardant-plants-canberra

“Fire Retardant — Yes — Ophiopogon japonicus”

The live Canberra Plant Selector marks “Ophiopogon japonicus” as “Fire Retardant: Yes.”
Firewise Landscaping for Woodland Homes — Alabama Forestry Commission · 2002 archived booklet · original source Corroboration Compilation lineage: firewise-national

“Suggested ground covers: Mondo Grass — Ophiopogon japonicus”

The booklet explicitly places this row in one or more suggested-plant sections.

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: USDA PLANTS · GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata · ITIS

Ophiopogon japonicum (Monkeygrass). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/ophiopogon-japonicum/. Last verified 2026-08-23.