EURASIAN WATER MILFOIL

Myriophyllum spicatum

PROHIBITED MATTER – REPORT THIS WEED (02) 6623 3800

Description An underwater weed with olive-green feathery leaves. It can quickly take over waterways.

Leaves Olive-green, 4 cm long. Each leaf is divided into 5–25 pairs (usually more than 12) of feather-like leaflets arranged in whorls of 4 around the stem.

Flowers Occur above the water in whorls of 4. Male flowers are 3 mm long with pink petals. Female flowers are 2–3 mm long and do not have petals.

Fruit Red with four sections, 2–3 mm long and held above the water.

Stems Red-brown to white-pink, up to 7 m long and 5 mm wide.

Dispersal Seed or vegetative reproduction from plant fragments dispersed by waterways, attached to birds, watercraft or fishing equipment.

Confused with Introduced Parrots feather (Myriophyllum aquaticum) and native Myriophyllum species, like M. crispatum and M. Caput-medusae.

Control Please do not attempt to treat or dispose of this weed yourself. Call (02) 6623 3800 if you see this plant anywhere in the Far North Coast region.

Frogbit

Limnobium spp.

PROHIBITED MATTER – REPORT THIS WEED (02) 6623 3800

Description A fast-growing, floating freshwater weed that forms large dense mats across the water’s surface.

Leaves Bright green, up to 4 cm wide, and glossy on top. Young leaves are round, spongy on the underside and float lying flat on the water surface. Mature leaves become more oval-shaped, lose their spongy underside, and extend 50 cm above the water

Flowers White, greenish-white or yellowish, 1.3 cm wide. Male flowers are on long stalks.

Fruit Fleshy berry-like capsules, 4–13 mm long and 2–5 mm wide, up to 100 seeds.

Seeds Slightly flattened, hairy and 1 mm long.

Roots Hairy, grow quickly downwards from the leaves’ base, are 2 mm thick and up to 20 cm long, have minor roots that grow slowly from the major roots that are 1 mm thick and up to 10 cm long.

Dispersal Seed or vegetative reproduction from plant fragments dispersed by waterways, attached to birds, watercraft equipment, illegal dumping of aquarium or pond plants.

Confused with Native Frogbit (Hydrocharis dubia).

Control Please do not attempt to treat or dispose of this weed yourself. Call (02) 6623 3800 if you see this plant anywhere in the Far North Coast region.

HYDROCOTYL Hydrocotyle ranunculoides

PROHIBITED MATTER – REPORT THIS WEED (02) 6623 3800

PREVENT THIS WEED

Description An aquatic perennial plant that can rapidly form a dense mat in stationary or slow-flowing freshwater. Also known as water pennywort.

Leaves Alternately along the stolons, circular to kidney-shaped, up to 10 cm wide, contain 3–7 lobes with shallow-toothed edges.

Flowers Tiny greenish, yellowish, or white 5-petalled flowers, 2–3 mm wide, occur below the leaf canopy in clusters of 5–10. On slender stalks about 2 cm long, from the nodes.

Fruit Almost circular, 1–3 mm wide and splits into segments.

Stems Emerge from nodes along the stolon and are 2–25 cm long.

Roots Long horizontal stems (stolons) produce roots at each node.

Dispersal Seed or vegetative reproduction from plant fragments dispersed by waterways, substrate movement, attached to animals, vehicles, watercraft, footwear or illegal dumping of aquarium or pond plants.

Confused with Weed species Large-leaved Pennywort (Hydrocotyle bonariensis) and native Pennyworts (Hydrocotyle spp.) and Violets (Viola spp.).

Control Please do not attempt to treat or dispose of this weed yourself. Call (02) 6623 3800 if you see this plant anywhere in the Far North Coast region.