St John’s Wort
Our current target is St John’s Wort (Hypericum perfatorum) which is proliferating at The Fair site in Watson, thanks to the plentiful rain and sunshine. St John’s Wort (StJW) is a perennial which was introduced as a garden plant in the 1870s because of its medicinal properties. It is an aggressive invader, each flowering plant dropping hundreds of seeds which can stay viable in the soil for many years. Its roots also sucker to form new plant growth. Parts of The Fair are rich with native wildflowers which are also enjoying the La Nina conditions and we are concentrating on hand- removing StJW in these patches of native vegetation before it sets seeds.
While the sea of StJW may seem overwhelming, in areas which have been previously treated either through hand-weeding or spraying with herbicide, the weed hasn’t returned. So our efforts do make a difference.
Last week we made an exciting new find, the rare Emu-foot (Cullen tenax) known to occur only on a few sites in the ACT. |