Calls to ban a popular garden plant being sold at garden centres and nurseries across the country have been renewed after images of a field full of the ‘lovely-looking’ species emerged. Gazania daisies are a highly invasive weed that has escaped from backyards and gardens and is now taking over the environment.
Recent research has revealed the plant can thrive in almost all conditions, posing a significant threat to native species, with disastrous economic implications. Recent photos from Katanning, a small town 270km southwest of Perth, show an entire field awash with the bright orange flower, highlighting just how pervasive the plant is.
“One of the most problematic aspects of this species is that they are pretty and easy to grow as an ornamental plant,” Dr Ali Bajwa, a weed scientist at La Trobe University, told Yahoo News.
“The problem lies in the negative impacts on the environment. They form monocultures and choke other vegetation, especially native plants, which leads to habitat destruction.”
Dr Bajwa told Yahoo that a ban “would be the right step” in preventing the dangerous weed from taking over delicate native environments, and pointed out that the plant puts Western Australia’s iconic wildflower season at risk in the future.
“We’d advocate for them to be replaced with something more desirable, preferably natives,” he said.
Gazania spreads quickly through bushland, competing with native plants. Source: Getty
Calls to rethink policy for invasive garden plant
Gazanias were originally imported from South Africa, where they became a popular garden plant between the 1950s and 1970s. Councils have even been known to plant the species on nature strips and roadsides.
But a recent study by La Trobe University revealed how serious a threat the plant poses to native grasslands and grain-growing regions.
“We’re seeing disturbing trends of gazanias jumping fences and impacting grain production, and that’s where they have that massive economic impact because they are naturally tolerant to chemicals, so once they appear in the production fields, it’s not easy to control,” Dr Bajwa said.
Now, in South Australia, gazanias are declared a pest under the Landscape South Australia Act 2019, meaning their sale and movement are prohibited. But the rest of Australia lags behind.
Various sizes of gazanias, including seeds, are available for sale for as little as $5,75 in many parts of the country at Australia’s largest hardware store, Bunnings. Many other nurseries continue to sell them too, prompting strong calls from across the industry for their ban earlier this year.
“Other states don’t have such legislation, so we need a big policy rethink and need to have some stronger measures in place,” Dr Bajwa said, believing the momentum to do so is there.
Speaking to Yahoo previously, Cam Rist, Bunnings Director of Merchandise, said the retailer “closely follows all relevant local biosecurity regulations and the advice of regulators about the plants we sell.”
“Like many nurseries and retailers, we sell a wide range of locally-sourced plants across our stores and we work hard to create an assortment that caters to customer preferences and demand,” he told Yahoo.
Dr Bajwa warned that there is “so much” of the plant now out in the wild, producing tens of thousands of seeds, and it is multiplying at a rapid rate. However, all hope is not lost; banning their propagation and planting would help, with more research required.
“A lot of people [previously] did not have awareness of the negative impact of these lovely-looking flowers,” he said. “It’s only now that we have established they have these weedy traits, there is recognition that there is a problem.”
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