Farmers and environmentalists call for national ban on selling invasive weed gazania
Bright and colourful gazanias are popular at many Australian nurseries, but farmers, environmental groups and researchers are calling…
#NewsBeep #News #Headlines #AU #Australia #flowersBunnings #gardening #Gazania #invasiveweed #invasiveweedsoldatBunnings #isgazaniaaweed #nurseries #PestAbatementplan #SouthAfrica
https://www.newsbeep.com/231212/
Clockweed (*Oenothera lindheimeri*) has been one of the latest fashions in garden landscaping around Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. Especially after the earthquakes, it's been planted around a lot of new buildings.
Would we widely plant yet another exotic plant that will go wild in NZ?
Yes, yes of course we would.
Here's a plant to look out for in Ōtautahi-Christchurch city: long-flowered Veldt grass, *Ehrharta longiflora*. I found it in flower biking home from work.
It's only known in the South Island from the base of Hackthorne Road in Christchurch. The City Council and ECan have been spraying it when it appears. We're not sure if it's anywhere else.
This is how weeds start. Please look out for it and report it on #iNaturalist.
I went into central #Christchurch to do my Xmas shopping and found the first patch of Nemesia floribunda, common lionface, that's been seen in the central city.
It's a weed from South Africa that's abundant on Otago Peninsula but absent from Banks Peninsula. I made the 1st record of it for Canterbury in 2014, at Lincoln, and pulled it up. It showed up in Christchurch in 2017, on the Main South Road railway bridge, and has been slowly spreading.
@cbuddenhagen Thanks. I vaguely remember hearing about that, but had forgotten to look up the paper. I appreciate the link.
There's a lot of Japanese knotweed wild on the West Coast, in places where there's also plenty of native pohuehue (esp. Muehlenbeckia autralis). I'll need to keep a closer eye out for possible hybrids.
Yesterday @KorimakoEcology posted about what a horrible weed Phoenix palm is becoming in parts of NZ. Inspired by that, I went through the observations on #iNaturalistNZ and set "Organism is wild" to "No" for about 50 observations of clearly planted palms. Now, a search for Phoenix palm correctly maps out wild Phoenix palms. (When uploading to #iNaturalist, please do always check the "captive/cultivated" box for planted plants.)
https://inaturalist.nz/observations?order_by=observed_on&place_id=6803&taxon_id=78554
A good example of why #PhoenixPalms are such a problem #InvasiveWeed.
They happily germinate in complete darkness, and this one has pushed up through the pavement and is looking very healthy.
There is the stump of an adult palm on the other side of the fence that was cut down ~18 months ago.
News Beep
Jon Sullivan
Andy McKay