CRC for Australian Weed Management The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status By R.P. Randall | CRC for Australian Weed Management Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia Acknowledgments A great deal of time and effort has gone into this publication. Nevertheless, as there is no definitive listing of Australian native species there may be some native plants listed in this book as introduced exotics. It is also very likely that many more exotic plants are present in Australia then have been listed here. I take full responsibilty for any errors or omissions and would appreciate it if users of this book would please contact me with any corrections or additions via my email address: [email protected] I would like to thank the Weeds CRC for supporting this project, especially the project members, and in particular my friend Dane Panetta for his ongoing support. Furthermore many, many thanks to all those people who helped with this project including the provision of personal data, unpublished papers and various comments, aid and assistance of many forms during the last six years. They are, in no particular order, and certainly not restricted to: Barbara Waterhouse * Rachel McFadyen Andrew Mitchell * Dane Panetta John Hosking * The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status The introduced Sandy Lloyd Paul Pheloung * Greg Keighery Peter Williams * David Cooke Kate Blood Cindy Hanson Louise Hucks John Virtue Rick Roush Michael Mulvaney Patrizia Gremigni * Weed CRC Project team members CRC for Australian Weed Management September 2007 Copyright © CRC for Australian Weed Management 2007 This information is copyright. Except as permitted under the Australian Copyright Act 1968 (Commonwealth) and subsequent amendments, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or otherwise, without the specific written permission of the copyright owner. Enquiries and additional copies: CRC for Australian Weed Management, Waite Campus, University of Adelaide, PMB 1, Glen Osmond, SA 5064 Australia Telephone: (61) (08) 8303 6590 Fax: (61) (08) 8303 7311 Email: [email protected] www.weeds.crc.org.au ISBN: 978-1-920932-60-2 Front cover photos: Taken from a selection of images that appear throughout this publication as credited within. Disclaimer: This publication is provided for the purpose of disseminating information relating to scientific and technical matters. Participating organisations of the Weeds CRC do not accept liability for any loss and / or damage, including financial loss, resulting from the reliance upon any information, advice or recommendations contained in this publication. The contents of this publication should not necessarily be taken to represent the views of the participating organisations. ii CRC for Australian Weed Management • The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status Table of contents flora of Australia and its weed status The introduced Foreword 1 Introduction 3 Background 5 The numbers of plants in cultivation in Australia 5 Horticultural names – Australian natives 5 Some plants become problems 6 How to use this book 7 The codes 7 A brief explanation of botanical nomenclature 9 A quick guide to understanding this publication 11 A–Z list of the introduced flora of Australia and its weed status 12 A 13 B 65 C 87 D 149 E 173 F 203 G 213 H 231 I 255 J 263 K 267 L 271 M 295 N 321 O 333 P 347 Q 399 R 403 S 425 T 467 U 489 V 493 W 503 X 507 Y 509 Z 511 Bibliography and notes 515 CRC for Australian Weed Management • The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status iii The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status The introduced iv CRC for Australian Weed Management • The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status Foreword Foreword Invasive plants are species that have entered Australia from elsewhere, and which are now causing economic, social or environmental harm. In the 200 years since the arrival of Europeans, over 28,000 foreign plants have been brought to Australia, most deliberately imported for pasture, horticulture or as ornamentals. Their impact is enormous – invasive plants are the main threat to 45% of threatened and endangered species and ecosystems in New South Wales (Coutts-Smith and Downey 2006), and the cost to Australian agriculture is at least $3.5bn per year in lost production and control costs (Sinden et al. 2004). It has taken us a long time to recognise the havoc caused to our environment by weeds, and many still fail to appreciate the scale of the problem. Too many people see the green trees or the pretty flowers and fail to understand the lost native diversity which these invaders have replaced. However, progress is being made, and all new plant imports are now subject to a Weed Risk Assessment, and can only be imported if the risk is low. Now the next step is to manage the enormous number of plants already present in Australia, in gardens and private collections, some already widespread, some naturalising in small areas and others just waiting for favourable conditions before they too become major weeds. The first step in this process is to assemble accurate information on the plant species already here, and this database of the introduced plants of Australia does just that. Every introduced plant species present and being grown in Australia is listed, whether or not it is naturalised (ie growing in the wild), and with information on its weedy status here and worldwide. This book is a development from Rod’s database of all weedy flora of the world published in 2002 as A Global Compendium of Weeds. Together these two publications represent the results of years of meticulous work. The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status is an invaluable resource to everyone who cares about the Australian environment and wishes to ensure that the plants chosen for revegetation projects, landscaping and gardens are not likely to become weedy and a threat to our bushland. Rachel McFadyen CEO CRC for Australian Weed Management CRC for Australian Weed Management • The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status 1 The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status The introduced 2 CRC for Australian Weed Management • The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status Introduction Introduction Humans are by far the most effective and efficient vector of plants around the world, and the nursery industry is a key, though not the only, commercial arm of this enthusiastic vector base. In the last 200 years a very large number of species have been introduced to Australia, including many that have not naturalised here as yet but that could potentially do so if introduced to the correct region(s) in sufficient numbers. This could easily happen if they became more popular in trade and were more widely sold and distributed, increasing propagule pressure to the point where site and circumstance meet and they become naturalised. As a way to manage this problem, staff at an initial meeting early in the second round of the Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management proposed the development of a database of exotic plant species in Australia. A team of people interested in the idea was assembled and the project began in March 2001. The Exotic species database project was originally initiated to assist in the completion of Weed Risk Assessments (WRA), the very first phase of which is to determine if the plant being assessed is already in Australia. Any plant species already present in Australia, whether naturalised here, commonly available in trade or possibly only found in the occasional plant collection, will automatically be added to the Permitted List, as long as the plant is not also a proscribed weed in any state with legal requirements to eradicate or manage. This publication is one outcome of the project, and is aimed at a large range of users from Commonwealth, state and local government officers, to researchers, horticulturists, nursery owners, farmers, landscapers, consultants and groups of volunteers looking after remnant bushland. Everyone who uses plants needs to be aware of the weed potential of those plants and to be able to make informed decisions about which ones to use in their operations. I hope to see a time, and not that far away, where the use of weedy plant species will no longer be accepted in public and private plantings in Australia. This publication is offered to help people to make responsible decisions in the types of plants they use in the future. Rod Randall Weed Science Cooperative Research Centre for Australian Weed Management Department of Agriculture and Food, Western Australia July 2007 CRC for Australian Weed Management • The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status 3 The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status The introduced 4 CRC for Australian Weed Management • The introduced flora of Australia and its weed status Background Background The introduction of a plant to a new region means different things to different people. With plants in particular, any definitions of introduction, incursion and invasion are full of grey areas. Different authors have offered their own definitions of the suite of terms used in invasion biology and although researchers familiar with this area are mostly in agreement the same cannot be said for others, especially those involved in plant introductions. The word ‘introduced’ as used in the title itself needs explanation. In this context, the most commonly accepted definition of introduction is: As a result of dispersal, propagules ... arrive at a site beyond their previous geographical range and establish populations of adult plants (Richardson et al. 2000). This definition implies that plants need to establish self-reproducing populations to be called introduced, but that is in fact the next step beyond introduction called colonisation, where the introduced plants first develop self-sustaining populations.