Bitou bush was once used to stabilise sand dunes, but has now become a significant weed in coastal areas.

It is rated as the worst pest plant in the Australian coastal environment, restricting access to beaches and destroying native bushland.

Where bitou bush invades the impacts include a decline in native plant communities; a decline in floral biodiversity; changes in the diversity of birds, mammals and ground-dwelling insects and harbouring of pest animals like foxes and introduced birds which disperse the seeds.

Native to South Africa, bitou bush first found its way to Australia in 1908, dumped as ballast from ships on the banks of the Hunter River in New South Wales.

The species was then recognised as an effective coloniser and deliberately planted for soil and dune stabilisation from 1946 to 1968 along the coast by the Soil Conservation Service of NSW.

Bitou bush is a shrub which grows to two metres tall.

It is distinguished by its sprawling habit, yellow flowers in heads with up to 13 petal-like ray florets and egg-shaped, green, to black seeds.

With a crown at or below ground level, stems spread horizontally before ascending.

Leaves are fleshy, oval with the narrow end at the base. They are 3 cm to 6 cm long (sometimes slightly toothed) and young leaves are covered in a cottony down.

Flowers are yellow, with 11 florets to 13 florets.

Bitou bush flowers most of the year with the peak from April to July.

Dispersal is by animals passing the indigestible seeds, also by water.

Bitou bush may be confused with native species Scavoela and Boolayala.