The weed, Mexican feather grass has been found in Queensland prompting an alert for landholders, gardeners and nurseries in Goondiwindi.
An off duty Biosecurity Queensland Officer discovered the exotic weed in landscaping on a Brisbane street just over a three weeks ago.
“Since then Biosecurity Queensland has been working hard with the nursery industry to track down other plants,” Primary Industries and Fisheries Minister Tim Mulherin said.
“This highly dangerous weed has the potential to cost Australian agriculture and the environment many millions of dollars if not stopped in its tracks now.
“Mexican feather grass is a low protein fibrous grass which has no grazing value and would make pasture lands virtually worthless.”
Mr Mulherin said Biosecurity Queensland’s investigations have discovered Queensland landscapers and retail nursery outlets have innocently purchased the Mexican feather grass plant for use in landscaping or sale to the general public.
“The weed plants were mistakenly labelled as Stipa capillata and Stipa capriccio by an interstate supplier who sold the stocks to a Queensland production nursery - who then sold the plants to retail outlets,” he said.
The plants have gone to locations throughout Queensland including Algester, Aspley, Kenmore, Springfield, Redlands, Noosaville, Kawana, Sippy Downs, Gympie, Biloela, Emerald, Goondiwindi, Kingaroy, Longreach, Mackay, Monto, Pialba, Surat, Urangan, Warana, and Yeppoon.
“Gardeners who have recently bought plants as grass feature plants need to check if they have in fact, purchased Mexican feather grass,” Mr Mulherin said.
Biosecurity Queensland general manager, Dr Bruce Wilson, said his officers had tracked the weed to a range of locations across Queensland but they now needed help from the public.
“We need help from the general public to report any suspicious looking plants so we can trace and eradicate all existing specimens before the weed has a chance to establish in Queensland,” he said.
Retailer warned six months ago
The presence of the noxious weed in Brisbane gardens came as no surprise to nurseryman and Mitre 10 owner Mr Alywn Bauman.
“We were warned about this plant earlier in the year and told to stay well away from it,” Mr Bowman said.
Border Builders is a member of the Nursery and Gardening Industry of Australia (NGIA), which disseminate relevant industry information to its members.
“We were informed by email and as I knew I’d never bought any of it, I wasn’t worried,” Mr Bauman said.
Mr John McDonald, Industry Development Manager for NGIQ said that they were fully aware of the detection of the Mexican feather grass in Victoria in May and had alerted the Victorian DPI and all industry members.
According to Mr McDonald the industry is able to trace the distribution of plants throughout Australia and the Victorian government would have been able to find exactly where the plants had gone.
“We (NGIQ) assumed that DPI Victoria didn’t find anything coming into Queensland and we certainly weren’t notified that it had,” Mr McDonald said.
“We have excellent traceability with plants and I can’t explain why DPI Victoria would not have alerted the Qld DPI if they had traced it to retail outlets in Queensland,” Mr McDonald said.
The plants came from a Victorian supplier and through the industry group’s investigations found that their was a company at the time that had acquired the plant and was selling it through their South Australian stores.
The Argus contacted four of the plant retail outlets in Goondiwindi and they were all confident that they had at no time stocked the plant.
A Queensland DPI spokesperson, Caroline Dalton said at this point in time they were not prepared to say where the plants were sold in Goondiwindi and were continuing with their investigations.
The Queensland DPI had also been informed six months ago of the presence of the weed in Victoria.
The DPI released a statement to the Argus late last week.
“Yes, the Victorian Government did tell us that they were investigating the sale of Mexican feather grass in Victoria six months ago.
“The Victorian Government and our own department are still investigating the specifics of how Mexican feather grass has come into Queensland and we are working closely with them on this.”
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