Download Tuart and weed Guide - Friends of Trigg Bushland

Tuart and Weed Guide
Tuart Survey Training
Friends of Trigg Bushland Inc
www.triggbushland.org.au
What is a tuart?
 You
are likely to see mostly tuart
trees.
 The only other trees you are likely to
see are marri, although there are
occasional jarrah trees.
This handout will be available
for use during tuart mapping.
Tuart trees have long, narrow leaves if mature and short leaves if juvenile. The
underside is nearly the same colour as the top. Fruit may be hard to see in the
canopy, but will be small. The trunk of mature trees is usually grey.
Marri trees have large, obvious fruit (honky nuts) that are usually visible in the
canopy. The leaves often have reddish stems, and the underside of the leaf is
usually lighter than the top of the leaf.
Some Weeds of Trigg Bushland
Weeds appear different depending on time
of year
 Photos and text from Western Weeds, A
Guide to the Weeds of Western Australia,
by Hussey, Keighery, Cousens, Dodd &
Lloyd (1997)
http://members.iinet.net.au/~weeds/inde
x.htm

Weeds to identify:
•Pelargonium
•Carnation Weed
•Bridal creeper
•Freesia
•Fumitory
•Onion Weed
•Oxalis
•Veldt grass
•Wild oats
•Couch
•Other
Pelargonium
The genus Pelargonium
includes all garden
'geraniums' and several
garden varieties.
Pelargonium capitatum
(rose pelargonium) is a
straggling shrubby
perennial, softly hairy, with
compact heads of pink
flowers.
Geraldton Carnation Weed
Euphorbia terracina
(Geraldton carnation weed)
is a smooth leaved erect
perennial to 80cm tall, much
branched from the base. The
leaves are long and narrow,
1-4cm long and minutely
toothed. The flower is at the
top of the stalk, yellowgreen, and produced in
summer. Produces a very
toxic and irritating milky sap
when cut.
Asparagus asparagoides (bridal creeper) is a southern African plant
and is one of the WA’s most urgent environmental weed problems. Birds
relish its fleshy fruits and spread the seeds in their droppings. It is
extremely invasive, spreading even into undisturbed bushland. It flowers
in spring, dies down in summer, then shoots rapidly to climb and sprawl
over other vegetation, eventually smothering it. Bridal creeper is a very
serious weed, especially in coastal dune ecosystems. CODE: BRIDAL
Freesia

Freesia alba x
leichtlinii (freesia) This
popular garden flower
with an attractive scent
has become a serious
weed of urban bushland.
The flower stems have a
characteristic rightangled bend just below
the lowest flower. It
flowers in spring and is a
hybrid of two species.
F. capreolata (white fumitory, climbing fumitory) has creamy white
flowers; the tips of the petals are a dark, blackish red and its leaves are
bright green. It sprawls and climbs, its stems sometimes reaching 1m in
length. On the Swan Coastal Plain it is common on wasteland, road
verges and shrublands, and flowers mainly in winter and spring. CODE:
FUM
Onionweed

Trachyandra
divaricata
(strapweed, dune
onion weed) has flat
leaves and the
flowering stalk is
repeatedly and widely
branched. It flowers in
spring and the white
petals often have a
pair of yellow spots
near their base.
Oxalis spp. A family of perennial herbs that regrow annually from tubers.
Leaves usually of three heart-shaped leaflets. Western Australia has 14
species of which 12 are naturalised. O. pes-caprae (soursob, sour
grass) is a common weed with stalked leaves and many yellow flowers.
O. purpurea (four o'clock, purple wood sorrel) usually with prostrate
leaves in a small rosette. Flowers appear from late autumn to spring,
usually rose-purple with a yellow throat. CODE: OXALIS
E. calycina (perennial veldt grass) is a tufted perennial to 80cm tall.
The inflorescence is a drooping erect panicle of reddish-purple flowers.
Flowers in spring. It is a widespread weed of roadsides and bushland on
sandy soils the Swan Coastal Plain. E. longiflora (annual veldt grass)
is a tufted annual to 30cm tall. The greenish-purple inflorescence is a
narrow panicle, to 15cm long, flowering in spring. It is a widespread weed
of offshore islands, coastal dunes and sandy soils. CODE: VELDT
A. barbata (wild oat) is a tufted annual herb to 1.5m tall. The
inflorescence is a drooping, usually one-sided panicle. CODE: OAT
Cynodon dactylon (couch) is a stoloniferous and rhizomatous prostrate
perennial, to several metres across, rooting at the nodes. The leaves are
bluish-green. The inflorescence of two to seven digitate, purplish spikes
of flowers is produced in late spring and summer. It is widely planted as a
lawn grass and it invades wetlands and river edges in southern Western
Australia. It is native to the Kimberley and the tropics worldwide. CODE:
COUCH
Erodium
Erodium cicutarium
(common storksbill)
When green, the fruits
form a long beak shape
like the head of a stork
or heron, that split
when ripe so that each
seed is attached to a
long, spirally-twisted
awn. As these
'corkscrews' twist and
relax with changing
humidity, they drive the
seed into the ground
Cape Tulip

Moraea flaccida (one
leaf cape tulip) Prior
to flowering in spring,
infestations can be
recognised at a
distance from the
brown tinge resulting
from the dying tips of
their leaves. Petals up
to 4cm long.
Pink Gladiolus

Gladiolus
caryophyllaceus
(pink gladiolus) is
spring-flowering and
visually attractive. Its
leaves have a
distinctive red margin
and, in young plants,
are twisted spirally in
an anti-clockwise
direction
Blue Lupin

Lupinus
cosentinii
(Western Australian
blue lupin) has blue
flowers in whorls on
a long main stalk,
and 7 to 13
leaflets, up to
1.5cm wide.
Flaxleaf fleabane

Conyza bonariensis
(flaxleaf fleabane) is a
grey-hairy plant,
usually not much
more than a metre
tall, best distinguished
by its stem which
branches below each
pyramid of
inflorescences,
resulting in a
candelabra shape.
Sea Spinach

Tetragonia
decumbens (sea
spinach) is a prostrate
or scrambling soft,
semi-succulent
perennial, to 5m
across, with small,
four-lobed yellow
flowers with numerous
stamens and dry
brown winged fruits.
Flowers in spring.
Capeweed

Arctotheca calendula
(capeweed) is an
abundant plant, found
throughout the southwest, and increasing
rapidly in the arid zone
where it is displacing
everlastings. It is a
rosette-forming annual,
with greyish, lobed
leaves, and heads up to
6cm across, produced in
spring. They have
brilliant yellow ray florets
and a centre of black disc
florets.
Guildford Grass

Romulea rosea
(Guildford grass,
onion grass) The
flowers, with petals up
to 1.8cm in length,
open first at ground
level. As they mature,
the flower stem
elongates and bends
over, eventually
pushing the seed
capsule back under
the surrounding
vegetation.
the end
Tuart Survey Training
Friends of Trigg Bushland Inc
www.triggbushland.org.au