Imported flower emerges as major threat to Australian agriculture, environment: study

SYDNEY, June 4 (Xinhua) -- South African ornamental flower Gazania poses a growing threat to Australia's native grasslands and grain production due to its exceptional resilience and adaptability, a new study revealed on Wednesday.

The weed's ability to flourish in a wide range of environmental conditions, including varying light, temperature, soil salinity, and moisture, has made it especially difficult to control, according to a press release from the Melbourne-based La Trobe University.

Originally introduced to Australia in the 1950s and 1970s for decorative purposes, Gazania has since escaped gardens and spread rapidly, now thriving in diverse habitats, from coastal dunes and stream banks to roadsides and cultivated fields across southern and western Australia, the release said.

The research, published in Frontiers in Agronomy, found that Gazania seeds can germinate under nearly any environmental stress, enabling the weed to invade year-round. Its adaptability is making it difficult for Australian farmers to control, especially in dry regions where it infests grain fields, resists common herbicides, and outcompetes crops on sandy, marginal land, it said.

Weeds like Gazania already cost Australian agriculture more than 5 billion Australian dollars (3.23 billion U.S. dollars) annually, and Gazania's robust seed bank could lead to widespread infestations in no-till farming systems, exacerbating economic losses, warned the study's lead author, Muhammad Adnan, a La Trobe PhD student.

Ali Bajwa, head of the Weed Science group at La Trobe, stressed that understanding how Gazania germinates and emerges is key to predicting its spread and managing it, but more research on its growth and reproduction is needed for long-term control. Enditem