Queen palms...are they a Plant Pest?

Having observed the large number of immense fruiting palms in the neighbourhood ...Queen, Phoenix, Bangalore, Chusan, Fan....we are keeping a sharp eye out for all kinds of exotic palm seedlings, and studying observations of exotic palm seedlings growing wild, ie from seed fallen or spread by birds.

Our observations of several very large Queen palms in the neighbourhood of Eskdale Forest and Kaipatiki Creek led us to Jon Sullivan's historic observation of the 2002 discovery of 71 Queen palm seedlings under a taraire in Vaughan's Nature Walk, Long Bay Regional Park, during a weed survey by its Council managers.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/946040

Elsewhere, someone commented that exotic palms are not considered a pest plant because they now occur in any neglected garden, or anywhere lawns are unmown.

Which is a good starting point to understanding what a pest plant, or weed, is, and why ecological restoration in NZ means, primarily, weeding.

If the lawn is mown, or the neglected garden-bed weeded, or the unwanted tree cut down while young, the plant is not a pest.

North Shore forest remnants and margins, streamsides, beach and estuarine plantings, public walkways, schools, roadside berms and residential properties, are mostly now essentially "neglected gardens", reecieving at best an annual once-over with chemical treatment of the largest invasions of the fastest spreading weeds.

The budget doesn't cover removing seedlings and young trees and shrubs, some of which reproduce themselves in a few years, creating thousands more invasions.

Only highly publicly visible amenity plantings and a few residences (those with long-term tenants with the necessary resources and plant knowledge to maintain a garden) receive regular survey and weed control, and even these contain largely exotic plants, many of them invasive and contributing to the problem in natural areas.

The results of weed control at home or in reserves reflect the awareness of the gardener or contractor of the invasion of wild exotics, their plant identification skills, and their understanding of the site as a whole.

Exotic palms, like wattles, pine and tree privet, grow to maturity much more rapidly than the natives they replace. Once exotic trees are mature it is rarely possible to control them, due to the expense of arborism, compounded by the resource consent required for any tree over 4m high.

North Shore Auckland now has thousands of exotic invasive trees in native habitat, and a tiny budget with which the managers of public land must choose which bits of natural heritage to attempt to protect, through the necessary but expensive regular survey and maintenance.

So exotic palms are a pest indeed.

הועלה ב-אוגוסט 23, 2018 08:42 אחה"צ על ידי kaipatiki_naturewatch