LAWS ON INVASIVE PLANTS
PROTECT MARLOTH PARK CONSERVATION AREA FROM EXOTIC AND INVASIVE PLANTS
The Honorary Rangers work year-round to remove invasive plants on Parkland. By national law, property owners must also remove these plants from their stand.
No exotic or out-of-range plants are legally allowed here either. Read the special Conservation-related By-laws about exotic plants here: The Marloth Park REV by-law Campaign It explains the law simply with examples.
The Table below summarises the plant laws that govern us.
THE 4 WORST INVASIVE PLANTS IN MARLOTH PARK
Parthenium hysterophorus
Parthenium/famine weed
One of the worst invasives in the world.
Grows to flowering and seeding stage very fast and spreads quickly.
Weed out before flowering. If it has flowered weed into a paper bag and burn.
Causes allergic reactions. Wear gloves.
Lantana camara
Lantana
One of the worst invasives in the world.
Grows into big, dense thickets.
Must be pulled or dug up roots and all.
Chromalaena odoratoa
Triffid/paraffinbos
One of the worst invasives in the world.
Grows rapidly into dense thickets, especially in damp areas.
Very flammable.
Must be pulled up roots and all.
Solanum seaforthianum
Potato creeper
One of the worst invasives in Marloth Park.
Grows fast high up into trees and smothers them.
Many seedlings sprout under trees.
Pull up roots and all; hang in tree with roots up.
OTHER COMMON INVASIVES AND EXOTICS IN MARLOTH PARK
Agave species and Yucca giganctica are very common, yet are illegal. They come from Mexico, Central and South America and grow into thick clumps that are hard to remove.
Jacob’s Ladder (Euphorbia tithymaloides). This illegal North and Central American plant is commonly shared as hedging.
All the following plants are garden favourites but come from other parts of the world.
IDENTIFYING LEGAL ALOES AND NABOOM v. ILLEGAL CACTUS
To those not familiar with some of these plants, illegal cactuses can look very like our locally indigenous Aloes and Euphorbias. There is NO ground growing cactus plant from Africa! (Just one rare arboreal species found in forests.) Prickly pears (except varieties on farms with a permit) are one of the worst invasive plants in South Africa and so are illegal nationally. Queen of the Night is also illegal nationally.
