Download Tropical soda apple - Department of Agriculture and Fisheries

Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
Biosecurity Queensland
Pest alert
Tropical soda apple could be in your area
Call Biosecurity Queensland on 13 25 23 if you see this pest
Tropical soda apple (Solanum viarum)
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Upright much-branched perennial, 0.5-2 m high.
Leaves and stems are armed with thorn-like prickles up to 12 mm long.
Leaves are 10-20 cm long and 6-15 cm wide and covered with short hairs.
Flowers are white with five recurved petals, white to cream-coloured stamens.
Immature fruits are mottled light and dark green like a watermelon.
Mature fruits are smooth, round, yellow, and 1-3 cm in diameter with a leathery skin
surrounding a pale green, scented pulp.
• Early detection helps protect Queensland’s agricultural industries and natural environment.
Description
Tropical soda apple is a quick growing coloniser of open, disturbed sites and is native to parts of South America. Tropical soda apple
has become a major pest in Florida, where it has invaded at least 500,000 ha and costs landholders an estimated $6-15 M per annum
in control costs and lost production.
Currently, tropical soda apple has been found in New South Wales and a small number of isolated infestations in Queensland.
Invasive species risk assessment presents evidence that tropical soda apple has the potential to become a costly pest in an extensive
area of coastal and subcoastal Queensland and suggests that preventative control is a wise investment.
What should I do?
Although significant infestations of tropical soda apple have not been found in Queensland, landowners should be on the look out.
Spread has been associated with cattle transported from infested areas that have eaten the fruit. Look for tropical soda apple in areas
where cattle congregate e.g. stockyards, watering points and along creek banks.
If you believe you have tropical soda apple it is important to have the plant identified by sending a pressed specimen to the
Queensland Herbarium or submit a photo that includes flowers and fruit using the ‘Identify pest plants’ form from
www.biosecurity.qld.gov.au.
Control
While tropical soda apple is not declared, Biosecurity Queensland recommends its control by hand-pulling isolated plants and small
infestations, making sure that all roots and stem fragments are removed or using herbicides such as Grazon Extra, Grazon DS + Brushoff,
Roundup Bioactive + Brushoff that are permitted for use in Queensland under the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines
Authority (APVMA) Permit 12942. For full application directions read the permit and critical use comments. The permit can be viewed or
downloaded from the APVMA website at http://permits.apvma.gov.au/PER12942.PDF.
Further information
Further information is available from your local government office, or by contacting Biosecurity Queensland
(call 13 25 23 or visit our website at www.biosecurity.qld.gov.au).
Great state. Great opportunity.
Similar looking non-native Solanum speices
Devil’s fig (Solanum torvum)
• Spreading, scrambling shrub up to 3 m high with hairy stems.
• Scattered yellowish prickles, 3-7 mm long.
• Leaves broadly oval-ovate, lobed, 10-15 cm long, 8-10 cm wide,
petiole about 2-5 cm long.
• Flowers are white, groups of 50-100, on peduncles arising from
the stem between the leaves.
• Fruits are round, yellow, up to 15 mm in diameter.
• Seeds are yellow or brown, 1.5-2 mm long.
Key feature different to tropical soda apple
• Flowers have yellow centres.
Photos courtesy of Sheldon Navie
Giant devil’s fig (Solanum chrysotrichum)
• Large coarse thorny shrub up to 5 m high.
• Stems and undersides of leaves are thickly covered with a mat
of hairs.
• Leaves up to 30 cm long, 20 cm wide on a 12 mm long leaf-stalk,
usually deeply divided into pointed lobes.
• Stems, leaf stalks and leaf veins with scattered large thorns.
• Flowers are white, star shaped with yellow stamens, carried in
stalked clusters below the leaf joints.
• Fruits are round, 12 mm across, yellow when ripe.
• Seeds are light brown, 2 mm in diameter.
Key feature different to tropical soda apple
• Fruit forms in clusters.
Devil’s apple (Solanum capsicoides)
• Annual or short-lived prickly, spreading perennial shrub
up to 1 m high.
• Thorns are yellowish up to 12 mm long.
• Leaves broadly ovate, lobed, 15 cm long and wide.
• Flowers are white, 20-40 mm long.
• Fruits are bright orange-scarlet when ripe, 20-35 mm in diameter.
• Seeds are pale yellow or light brown, 4-6 mm in diameter.
Key feature different to tropical soda apple
• Fruit is red.
Apple of Sodom (Solanum linnaeanum)
• An erect, spreading shrub up to 1.5 m high.
• Stems are 2 m long, purple or green to brown, covered in prickles up
to 12 mm long.
• Leaves alternate along branches, oblong-to-oval in shape with deep,
rounded lobes.
• Flowers are purple, 2.5 cm in diameter, 5-lobed.
• Fruit is green with white mottling, then yellow when ripe, 3.5 cm
in diameter, bitter and poisonous.
Key feature different to tropical soda apple
• Flowers are purple.
Photos courtesy of Sheldon Navie