Look out for woolly nightshade
More than 10,000 woolly nightshade plants have been destroyed by Council’s biosecurity staff.
Four staff spent five days carrying out the work in Squally Cove, destroying seedlings and young plants after a previous visit.
Biosecurity Manager Liam Falconer said the site, in Croisilles Harbour, is one of the largest of several infestations in Marlborough.
One other large infestation is in Port Hardy on Rangitoto ki te Tonga/d’Urville Island with smaller infestations in Moetapu Bay, Moenui and Blenheim as well.
Mr Falconer asked anyone seeing woolly nightshade to report the highly invasive pest to Council immediately so it could be destroyed.
“Council will carry out control work at no cost to the landowner,” he said. “Sites are visited by biosecurity staff or contractors regularly to ensure infestations are controlled. We are concerned at the increasing number of finds of woolly nightshade in Marlborough.”
Woolly nightshade is an aggressive, fast-growing plant that forms dense exclusion colonies crowding out other plants and preventing native plant regeneration. Dust from the leaves and stems can irritate skin, eyes, nose and throat.
Each plant can produce thousands of seeds which are dispersed by birds that eat the berries.
First recorded in New Zealand in 1883, woolly nightshade is an invasive lowland shrub that can grow to 10 metres.