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From A Bride’S Bouquet Comes An Environmental Menace

With the onset of spring, plants are beginning to bloom and of course, weeds too have begun to make an appearance.

By Latrobe City - 25th September 2007 - Back to News

One weed of particular concern is ‘bridal creeper’, (Asparagus asparagoides) which is starting to take hold in parts of Latrobe City.

Latrobe City’s pest plant coordinator, Chris Rankin, said that bridal creeper was once a popular garden specimen often used in wedding bouquets and hanging baskets, but has now been identified as a Weed of National Significance.

"Bridal creeper was selected as a Weed of National Significance because of its invasiveness, ability to spread, and detrimental impact on socioeconomic and environmental values.

"Bridal creeper is a native of South Africa introduced to Australia in the mid to late 1800s. Possessing an aggressive climbing habit, bridal creeper, as the name suggests, will creep through and choke the surrounding vegetation," Mr Rankin said.

"This weed grows well in shaded environments and is very successful in establishing itself in areas of native vegetation where it will climb up and smother the lower trunks and branches of trees and shrubs often killing the host specimens.

"Bridal creeper has glossy green leaf-like structures that are roughly triangular in shape and small white flowers which appear between August and September," Mr Rankin explained.

"The root system consists of underground rhizomes from which new stems are able to grow each year making the plant particularly difficult to control.

Control options for this aggressive invader include hand removal of small, individual plants; repeated mowing or slashing over several seasons or the use of a suitable herbicide for larger infestations," Mr Rankin said.

"Biological methods have also proven very successful in controlling bridal creeper including the bridal creeper leafhopper, Zygina sp; the bridal creeper leaf beetle Criocerus sp; and a type of rust fungus.

"Bridal creeper leafhoppers have been bred by local primary school students and then released at an infestation site as a part of the national Weed Warriors program," Mr Rankin concluded.

Landholders who may have a bridal creeper infestation on their property, or residents who suspect they may have seen an infestation within Latrobe City, can contact Chris Rankin, telephone 1300 367 700 to confirm the weed’s identification and for further advice on control options.

Source: www.gippsland.com

Published by: news@gippsland.com