Weeds weeds weeds!!!

With the coming of the school holidays those of you who are not going away on holiday will probably be pulling up weeds. We have many groups in the Mundaring who spend many hours removing weeds from our reserves.

Weeds such as

• Freesia South Africa

• Paterson’s curse Asia introduced as a garden plant in 1850s

• Blue Periwinkle Mediterranean

• Cape Weed South Africa

• Guildford Grass (Onion grass, Onion weed, Rosy Sand Crocus) South Africa

• Arum Lily South Africa

• Watsonia or Bugle Lily Southern Africa

Guildford grass

Watsonia

Cape Weed

Freesia

Arum lily

Freesia

All of these plants and many more have become environmental weeds brought to Australia by early settlers to put in their gardens.

The ships sailing from England stopped to restock in South Africa and passengers brought plants that they saw and admired for their new gardens.

A lovely 1950s photo of "Birrelia" a garden on Ayres Road Stoneville. The pretty flowers are probably Cape weed

Any plant with Cape in the name came from South Africa. Also, plants were brought from Mediterranean countries where the climate is similar. they are hardy and not eaten by Australian fauna, so they spread uncontrolled by nature.

There are a number of friends groups in the Shire who help to control weeds and if you check out the Shire’s website you will see these 3 mentioned and also  how to find other groups.   

Helena River Catchment Group founded in 1977

Jane Brook Catchment Group founded in 1997

Susannah Brook Catchment Group reformed in 2017