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Tropical soda apple Solanum viarum

Tropical soda apple

Tropical Soda Apple featured in a television commercial, which screened in the Grafton to Nambucca region, on Southern Cross 10, during August. The commercial advised stock owners to hold new cattle in yards for seven days to prevent spread of the weed to their properties. Tropical Soda Apple is becoming a major pest in the NSW North Coast region. It is an aggressive prickly perennial shrub, one metre to two metres high. Tropical Soda Apple is a native of north-eastern Argentina, south-eastern Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. Upright and much branching, it has broad-based, straight, cream-coloured prickles to 12 mm long scattered [...]

Water lettuce Pistia stratiotes

Water lettuce

Water lettuce is a perennial stoloniferous aquatic herb growing to 20 cm above water level with feathery roots. Leaves are wedge-shaped, pale green, buoyant towards base, to 15 cm long and to 8 cm wide. Flowers are small and partly concealed at the base of the plant. Flowers occur on a column surrounded by a whitish slit funnel-shaped bract (spathe). A large number of unbranched feathery roots up to 80 cm long are submersed in water beneath the leaves of the plant. Water lettuce is dispersed by seed and vegetatively by daughter plants at the end of stolons. Seeds, seedlings [...]

Alligator weed Alternanthera philoxeroides

Alligator weed

Alligator weed is a perennial herb. There are different forms of this plant which grow on land and in water. Aquatic forms may be free-floating, or rooted and emergent from the water surface. Stems are hollow. The horizontal stem that produces roots and has shoots that develop into new plants, forming dense interwoven mats. Severe frosts may kill exposed stems. Leaves are without stalks, dark green, smooth, waxy, 2-7 cm long, 5-40 mm wide, in pairs opposite each other on the main stems. Veins from the central rib are visible beneath the waxy leaf surface. Flowers have silvery white heads [...]

Schinus terebinthifolius

Broad Leaf Pepper Tree

Broad-leaved Pepper Tree (BLPT), also known as Brazilian pepper tree, is an invasive tree capable of reaching 15 metres in height that originated in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay. BLPT is one of the most destructive weeds in Hawaii, Florida and the Bahamas, taking over vast areas of native vegetation. This species is also recorded as a weed in South Africa. BLPT has been cultivated as a garden plant in many countries and has been cultivated in Australia since the mid 1860s. This species is now naturalised in south-east Queensland, north-east New South Wales and parts of Western Australia. BLPT favours similar habitats to Groundsel Bush (Baccharis [...]

Giant Parramatta Grass Sporobolus fertilis

Giant Parramatta Grass

Weedy Sporobolus grasses such as Giant Parramatta Grass (GPG) and Giant Rats Tail Grass (GRTG) are aggressive weeds that significantly threaten a range of agricultural industries within the NSW North Coast region and many other parts of Australia. They also have significant impacts on the environment, recreation and tourism. GPG has invaded large areas of pasture in the region whilst GRTG is currently spreading. sporobolus_rcp

Cinnamomum camphora

Camphor Laurel

Camphor laurels were introduced to Australia from South East Asia in the mid 19th century and were reported as a weed by 1900. They have spread at a phenomenal rate over the past 20 years. It is estimated that over 30% of all camphor laurels in the north coast region are less than 3 metres high, or under 3 years of age (not including small seedlings). Of serious concern to other areastext south of the region is that camphor laurels recently began setting seed on Dorrigo plateau (elevation approx. 700m) for the first time. Camphor laurels threaten both agricultural lands [...]

North Coast Weeds Advisory Committee

The North Coast Weeds Advisory Committee (NCWAC) is the leading organisation for weeds in the NSW North Coast region, comprising all key stakeholders involved in weed management from Nambucca Shire to the Queensland border.

Our website gives you access to a wide range of information and pictures on individual noxious weeds and environmental weeds found in the area.

We also offer you access to many documents including the Northern Rivers Invasive Plants Action Strategy, the North Coast Bitou Bush Strategy and the Camphor Laurel Kit.

The NSW North Coast Region

The region enjoys high rainfall and a warm subtropical climate, which is ideal for the growth of plants – including many weeds. The region has a vibrant expanding population, a strong agricultural base and a diversity of natural features.
More about the areas we cover | view a map of NSW on Google Maps

Weeds Categories

Bathurst burr

Agricultural
(26 Listings)

Hymenachne

Aquatic
(7 Listings)

Coastal
(14 Listings)

Groundsel bush

Forest
(14 Listings)

Giant rat’s tail grass

Grasses
(7 Listings)

Herbs / Groundcovers
(9 Listings)