Swan Weeds
Information on the Swan Region’s major
environmental weeds
The Swan Weeds Database
Environmental weeds pose a serious threat to the rich natural biodiversity of the Swan Region in Western Australia. Swan Weeds is a database developed to provide accessible information on the most problematic environmental weeds in the region.
The database is a collaboration involving the Department of Environment and Conservation’s (DEC) Western Australian Herbarium, DEC’s Urban Nature Program and the 2006–2008 Invasive Species Project administered by the Perth Region NRM (formerly the Swan Catchment Council). The latter project has been funded through the Commonwealth Government’s Natural Heritage Trust program.
Swan Weeds aims to provide web-based delivery of information on the biology and management of environmental weeds which are problematic in Western Australia, with particular emphasis on those species occurring on the Swan Coastal Plain and Darling Scarp and Plateau (the Jarrah Forest IBRA Region). This area is shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1. The study area, encompassing the Swan Coastal Plain and the Darling Scarp and Plateau (the Jarrah Forest IBRA Region).
Information housed in the database links into and is available online here in DEC’s FloraBase, where it supplements the descriptions, images and distribution information with additional details of weed taxa origin, biology, and suggested methods of management and control. Presently there is information on 59 geophyte weed taxa with several species from other life forms. There is scope for this to be expanded to over 300 species covering all life and growth forms.
FloraBase displays the project information for a weed with related information on the plant’s profile page. Some examples are listed below. To find others, simply query FloraBase for a name, for all alien plants found on the Swan Coastal Plain or for all alien plants found in the Jarrah Forest.
- Agave americana L.
- Watsonia meriana var. bulbillifera (J.Mathews & L.Bolus) D.A.Cooke
- Sparaxis bulbifera (L.) Ker Gawl.
- Zantedeschia aethiopica (L.) Spreng.
- Lachenalia reflexa Thunb.
- Romulea rosea (L.) Eckl.
- Tribolium uniolae (L.f.) Renvoize
- Retama raetam (Forssk.) Webb
- Euphorbia terracina L.
- Moraea flaccida (Sweet) Steud.
Data sources and contributing agencies
The information has been collated from a large number of sources and agencies, the major ones include:
- Brown, K. and Brooks, K. (2002) Bushland Weeds; A practical guide to their management, Environmental Weeds Action Network, Greenwood, Western Australia.
- Hussey, B.M.J., Keighery, G.J., Dodd, J., Lloyd, S.G. and Cousens, R.D. (2007) Western weeds. A guide to the weeds of Western Australia, Second Edition, The Weeds Society of Western Australia, Victoria Park, Western Australia.
- Weeds Australia
- Weeds Cooperative Research Centre
- Keighery, G. (2007) Environmental weeds in the Swan NRM Region (unpublished data).
- Department of Agriculture and Food WA (DAFWA)
- Department of Environment and Conservation
- Perth Region NRM (formerly the Swan Catchment Council)
Project team
The development and management of this project has been a collective effort. The project team included Karen Bettink, Kate Brown, Brett Glossop, Greg Keighery, David Mitchell and Ben Richardson.
