Environmental Weeds is a collective term that refers predominantly to bushland and aquatic weeds. A concise definition describes environmental weeds as:

“plant species that have established self-propagating populations in native vegetation, terrestrial or aquatic, outside their natural range”

(Murrumbidgee CMA)

Within the Woollahra LGA environmental weeds impact significantly on the integrity of remnant bushland by altering plant community structure and habitat, and by displacing native plant and animal populations.

Many bushland weeds have come from suburban gardens originally introduced as horticultural plants. Some examples include Madeira Vine, Anredera cordifolia, Mother-of-Millions, Bryophyllum delagoense, Small-leaved Privet, Ligustrum sinense, Honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica and Asparagus Fern, Asparagus aethiopicus. Other traditional garden weeds are also weeds in bushland. Some examples include Fleabane, Conyza spp., Cobbler’s Peg, Bidens pilosa, Wandering Jew, Tradescantia fluminensis, and Veldt Grass, Ehrharta erecta.

Aquatic weed infestations are not a major issue within the Woollahra LGA as compared with other LGAs that possess significant systems of creeks, rivers, dams and irrigation canals.

There are many environmental weed species recorded which cause significant impacts on bushland areas within the Woollahra LGA through displacement of native plant species and the destruction of plant community structure. Woollahra Council’s bush regeneration program aims to control all environmental weeds that cause measurable impact on the ecological integrity of its bushland reserves and encourages similar control on private land throughout the LGA. The ultimate aim is to restore remnant plant communities and to make the process sustainable through a reduction in the source of dispersible weed material within local catchments.