Pest plants, such as moth plant and madeira vine, are invading Auckland’s North Shore – your gardens and your nearby bush reserves. Controlling them when they are small is easy and cheap. If they are left to grow, they can spread across your property onto your neighbours’ gardens and to nearby reserves.

Auckland Council has recently introduced new rules that require people in some areas to remove some pest plants from their property, in order to protect our native biodiversity.
Madeira vine is a pesty creeper that has reddish stems with small irregular 'warty' aerial tubers. The leaves are heart shaped, glossy, clammy to the touch, and arranged alternately on the stems. It’s flowering about now, with lots of slender, drooping, cream-coloured flowerheads about 18 cm long.
Madeira Vine forms dense long-lived infestations that smother native plants and dominate the bush. It can even topple small trees.

Take action as soon as possible:

• Report the weed using the EcoTrack.nz app
• Pull out roots
• Collect all aerial tubers
• As it can grow back from small fragments, put all parts in a securely tied black plastic bag and leave to 'cook' in the sun
• For larger stems, cut near to the ground and immediately paste a thin film of MetGel on the cut stem - can be purchased at most garden centres or hardware stores.
• Follow up will be required as it is incredibly persistent
• Talk to your neighbours and encourage them to take action too!
• Report madeira vine on Council Land to: aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/report-it
• For more information and guides on weed control, visit restorehb.org.nz/resources-pest-plants/

There are several environmental networks across Auckland’s  North Shore that support communities to recognise, report and remove pest plants and restore our native wildlife.
East Coast Bays and Hibiscus Coast – Restore Hibiscus & Bays:
info@restorehb.org.nz, restorehb.org.nz/resources-pest-plants/, Facebook.com/RestoreHB
Kaipātiki – Pest Free Kaipātiki:
enquiries@pestfreekaipatiki.org.nz,
pestfreekaipatiki.org.nz/pest-plant-resources, Facebook.com/pestfreekaipatiki/
Takapuna – Pupuke Birdsong Project: enviro@takapunatrust.org.nz,
Facebook.com/pupukebirdsongproject
Devonport Peninsula – Restoring Takarunga Hauraki: pestfreedevonport@gmail.com
Upper Harbour – Upper Harbour Ecological Network: upperharbourecology@gmail.com,
Facebook.com/UpperHarbourEcologyNetwork
For advice on chemical-free alternatives – Kaipātiki Project, community@kaipatiki.org.nz, kaipatiki.org.nz,
Facebook.com/kaipatikiproject

This Pest Plant of the Month feature is a collaborative initiative between Restore Hibiscus & Bays, Pest Free Kaipātiki Restoration Society, Pupuke Birdsong Project, Restoring Takarunga Hauraki, the Upper Harbour Ecological Network and Kaipātiki Project. Building on Te Ao Māori principles of kaitiakitanga and whanaungatanga, these environmental networks bring our communities together to foster guardianship, care and respect towards our whenua, natural world and indigenous wildlife.