Pest plants, such as moth plant and pampas grass, 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.
Pampas is an invasive grass which forms in clumps up to six metres tall. Sometimes mistaken for our beautiful native toetoe, the leaves of pampas are razor-sharp, hence its common name, ‘cutty grass’. Unlike toetoe’s drooping creamy-coloured flowers, pampas produces flowers from February to April that are erect, dense and uniform – generally white, pinkish or purplish in colour.
Pampas is a serious threat to some natural areas like sand dunes, stream banks and coastal cliffs where it can completely replace native plants. It is also a problem on roadsides, as it reduces visibility. Pampas can be a fire risk and harbours animal pests such as rats, mice, rabbits and possums.
Take action as soon as possible before the seeds form next summer:
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:
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.
