Do Your Block
New to the mountain? Would you like some assistance managing bushland on your block? Advice on weeds or advice on planting local native plants in your garden?
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MEPA has a free service offering advice and information (supported by MBRC)
Contact: Maggie - 3289 8175 or
Dominic - 3289 0093 or
Email: mepa.enquiries@gmail.com
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Dangerous plants to target:
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Lantana is an invasive shrub whose dense thickets now threaten the health of our forests. Smothering emerging native plants and releasing chemicals that retard their growth, Lantana thickets form an extensive understorey monoculture. It is also a severe fire hazard, readily carrying fire in dry conditions. Lantana has been recognised as a Weed of National Significance due to its invasiveness and potential impacts.
[Source: daf.qld.gov.au - April 2020]
Cat’s claw creeper is a native of tropical America and is an aggressive climber that was used as an ornamental in older-style Queensland gardens. This vine has the ability to completely smother native vegetation, even growing up over trees, and many bushland areas already have serious infestations of this weed. The vine has a vigorous root and tuber system, which adds to difficulties in controlling the weed. Cat’s claw creeper has been recognised as a Weed of National Significance due to its invasiveness and potential impacts.
[Source: daf.qld.gov.au - April 2020]
Easter cassia is a successful invader of disturbed or modified sites. It has been observed to establish in sunny openings and then scramble over the adjacent vegetation, often into the canopy layer of even rain forest. Easter cassia is very common in Brisbane gardens and is naturalised in highly disturbed urban bushland and farmland in many areas of coastal Queensland and northern New South Wales. Easter cassia is frequently seen along roadsides and on the banks of waterways.
[Source: daf.qld.gov.au - April 2020]
Madeira vine is an invasive, South American vine that blankets and smothers trees, shrubs and understory species. It grows prolifically at rates of up to one metre per week and the weight of the vine can cause canopy collapse of mature native trees. It produces large numbers of subterranean and aerial reproductive tubers that persist in the environment and make effective management difficult. The impacts of Madeira vine can be so severe that it causes irreversible damage to the invaded ecosystem, leading to its categorisation as a transformer species. Madeira vine is considered one of Australia’s worst environmental weeds and has been listed as a Weed of National Significance.
[Source: daf.qld.gov.au - April 2020]
Mother-of-millions are native to Madagascar and are escaped ornamental plants. Five species are commonly naturalised in Queensland. It is well adapted to dry areas because of its succulent features. As the name suggests, one plant can reproduce a new generation from masses of embryoids (plantlets) that are formed on the leaf edges. This makes these plants hard to eradicate and follow up controls are essential.
[Source: daf.qld.gov.au - April 2020]
