Invasive species are pervasive drivers of global change, and are considered as the second greatest threat to native biodiversity after habitat loss. Yet, the mechanisms underlying rapid adaptation of invasive species despite reduced genetic variation in novel environments has been a paradox for decades. Although sudden change in the environment is considered as an intense stress to the organism, these perturbations may facilitate rapid adaptation by affecting the genome structure and function via activating transposable elements (TEs). TEs are mobile genetic sequences that constitute a large portion of plant genomes, and are known to experience increased transposition events in response to environmental stress. Therefore, being the most variable component of the genome, active TEs have the potential to rapidly introduce genetic diversity by inserting themselves near or within exons, introns, or other regions. Through their mobility, TEs alter gene expression, promote gene shuffling, trigger chromosomal rearrangements via ectopic recombination, thereby contributing to the rapid adaptation for species with low genetic variation. Here, we explore the adaptive potential of transposable elements (TEs) in one of the notorious invasive grass species in North America, stiltgrass (Microstegium vimineum). As a shade-tolerant, polyploid, C4 grass, it invades a range of habitats in the USA, displays a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, has a mixed mating system, and exhibits prolific reproductive output with seeds being viable in the soil up to five years. With the reference genome sequenced for M. vimineum, it is known that the TEs comprise >60% of the genome and majority of the LTR-retrotransposons were derived from a significant expansion in the past 1-2 million years (relatively young lineages). To test whether TEs could drive rapid adaptation in invasive species, we sequenced more than 250 stiltgrass samples (contemporary and historical) from the native and invasive ranges. The software Transposome was used to estimate the relative genomic proportions of TE in 102 contemporary and 108 historical stiltgrass samples. A preponderance of Copia retrotransposons was found in southeastern US (SE-US) samples compared to samples collected from northeastern US (NE-US) and native Asia. Following TE abundance estimation, we used a multivariate landscape genomic method, redundancy analysis (RDA), to identify relationships between seven TE superfamilies and abiotic climatic variables (19 BIOCLIM variables). To avoid issues with multicollinearity, we selected five uncorrelated BIOCLIM variables. Preliminary findings from RDA and multivariate regression analysis show at least two low-abundance TE superfamilies that have significant relationships with mean temperature of wettest quarter (BIO 8) and annual precipitation (BIO 12). In addition, we found TE variation between SE-US and NE-US, whereas not much variation is observed in Eastern Asia, corroborating our earlier hypothesis of two separate invasions in the USA for stiltgrass. Future investigations will involve identification of active transposition activity in contemporary and historical samples to track the dynamics of specific TE families over time. Linking TE activity to nearby genomic regions will provide critical information on the role of TEs in the evolution of invasiveness.