Weeds

They are often favourite plants:  they might have attractive flowers, they might flower for a long time, they might be able to cover a fence or be able to cover an unattractive structure.  They are hardy, they might need little water or care, they might remind us of home, or they might grow in a spot where nothing else seems to want to grow.

Within our own gardens, they are great plants to have for these reasons. But when they spread into bushland like Yarran Dheran, they are described as environmental weeds.  

Plants have always spread by wind, water, or they have been spread by birds. Many environmental weeds are able to establish themselves great distances from the parent plant, whether through bird dispersal of berries, or fruit, wind-blown seed or by inadvertent dispersal by humans and animals–as seeds may travel on clothing and footwear; improper dispersal is when humans dump garden waste in bushland areas. 

Some have secondary strategies for establishing themselves in other places. e.g., by invading along waterways and then using root fragments or root suckering to establish themselves.  Foxes are important agents in spreading blackberry. 

Any non-indigenous plant that colonises itself in bushland competes with indigenous flora is an environmental weed. They are tough plants and easily out-compete most indigenous flora for space, moisture, nutrients, sunlight and pollinators.  In time, they smother or overrun indigenous vegetation, our bushland diversity suffers and the bushland might disappear altogether.

Environmental weeds are sold through major retailers and markets.  Familiarize yourself with them to avoid planting any of them. Once established, they can be extremely difficult and costly to remove. If you have these weeds in your garden you should work towards safely removing them or ensuring they do not spread. 

No one would purposefully plant weeds! Yet weeds are well established through urban areas and spread into your garden and into Council reserves, parks and bushland. Panic Veldt Grass, Quaking Grass and Cat’s ear, Flatweed, Oxalis and Capeweed are commonly seen and tend to be the main weeds removed in working bees in Yarran Dheran.

Angled Onion Weed is a relative newcomer, spreading from waterways to suburban gardens.  Please watch for these weeds in your garden and eradicate them wherever possible 

Cassinia Sifton, commonly known as Chinese Shrub, is a drought-resistant Australian shrub of south-eastern Australia which establishes readily when natural vegetation such as forest or woodland has been cleared. It can be invasive and form dense stands which compete very strongly with other native species for light and moisture, thus preventing revegetation of indigenous plants with habitat values.

There are no records of this plant in Victoria prior to the major gold rushes of the 1850’s, when it was used on goldfields by Chinese miners as roofing material for their huts. It has been declared a weed in NSW and can be found in Yarran Dheran. 

Yarran Dheran neighbours are asked to be watchful of this plant appearing in their gardens and to pull it out before it flowers in late summer and autumn, thereby preventing any subsequent impact on the reserve.