Is this plant in my garden a weed?
A weed is a plant in the wrong place. To some, plants with “pretty flowers” take pride of place in gardens. Unknowingly, the gardener may be harbouring a weed that is a serious potential threat to our local natural environments.
Boneseed is such an example and now threatens coastal environments in Canterbury. During a Boneseed Awareness and Action Campaign in August, many people were unaware that boneseed is a serious pest and would comment, “but it has such a pretty flower”.
Ornamental it is, but it also has berries that birds eat and spread over a wide area. If left unchecked, boneseed causes dense infestations in rock outcrops and cliffs, dunes, on vacant land and ungrazed farmland. It is highly flammable and regenerates rapidly after fire.
Cashmere Spur was the target for this year’s public boneseed campaign. The weed has spread westwards from Sumner across the lower slopes of the Port Hills to Cashmere. It has also jumped across the estuary to Southshore Spit and South Brighton, and is scattered around coastal areas from Lyttelton Harbour to Akaroa.
In Environment Canterbury’s Regional Pest Management Strategy, 20052015, boneseed is a listed biodiversity pest. Control objectives are to eradicate it outside the Port Hills zone and to reduce the area it occupies within the zone by 20 per cent by 2015.
By coordinating community effort, boneseed is containable. The Council thanks volunteers who did an excellent job in the recent campaign of removing plants from Cracroft Reserve, beside the Sign of the Takahe. This was followed by a successful day involving volunteers, the public and agencies removing boneseed from private properties and from roadsides on Cashmere Spur. Agencies coordinating the event included the City Council, the Department of Conservation, Environment Canterbury and the national weeds umbrella group Weedbusters.
It is hoped that future campaigns can be coordinated to contain the spread of boneseed back toward the main infestations in the Sumner/Redcliffs area. Council rangers are controlling boneseed to stop its spread into the dunes, tussock grasslands and rock outcrops.
Can you help us? Finding and removing boneseed from private gardens would make a great contribution to reducing its spread. Seedlings are easy to pull out. For larger plants, cut the woody stem at ground level and treat with an appropriate herbicide.
Volunteers remove boneseed seedlings from a slope at Cracroft Reserve. The adult plant is shown at left.
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