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 An
Illustrated Guide to
Common Weeds
of New Zealand
Araujia
sericifera
moth
plant
Family
ASCLEPIADACEAE
Reproduced from
Common
Weeds of New Zealand
by Ian Popay, Paul Champion & Trevor James
ISBN 0 473 09760 5
by kind permission of the
New
Zealand Plant Protection Society
Publication or other use of images or descriptive
text on these pages is unauthorised unless written permission is
obtained from the authors and publisher.
Appropriate acknowledgement
of the publication Common Weeds of New Zealand must always
be given.
Available from Nationwide Book Distributors
Rapid-growing,
vigorous perennial climber up to 5 m or more tall. Broken parts
exude a sticky milky latex. White, fragrant, bell-shaped flowers,
followed by large, pear-shaped pods containing kapok-like material
surrounding the black seeds.
- Flowers White,
pinkish in bud, bell-shaped, fragrant, 20-25 mm in diameter, with
five petals. Moths, butterflies and bees are attracted to and
trapped in the flowers. Flowers Dec-May.
- Fruit Large
pear-shaped pods up to 10 cm long by 7 cm across, containing a
mass of kapok-like pappus and many wind dispersed black seeds,
each 7-8 mm long.
- Leaves Dark
green, thick, triangular, up to 12 cm long by 6 cm wide. Smooth
on the upper surface and greyish-downy underneath.
- Stems
Downy, flexible, twining, scrambling to more than 5 m long.
- Roots Rhizomatous.
Habitat
Hedges, trees, stony
banks, cliffs, unkempt areas and waste places.
Distribution
Common in some parts
of northern NI. Also found at Blenheim in SI. Originally from
south Brazil and Argentina.
Comments
A garden escape, becoming
increasingly common. Listed on the National
Pest Plant Accord (see Introduction for details).
Derivation
of botanical name
Araujia after
Antonio de Matos Araujo, 19th cent. Portuguese plant collector;
sericifera (Lat.) = silk-bearing (either of the seeds,
or of the white hairs on young shoots and under the leaves).
Web-notes:
Weed Links
On this site
Reproduced from Common Weeds
of New Zealand:
External Links
 Weedbusters
New Zealand
- Weedbusters is a weeds awareness and education programme that aims to
protect New Zealand's environment from the increasing weed problem.
- AgPest
- A free tool to assist farmers and agricultural professionals in decision-making regarding weed and pest identification, biology, impact and management.
 New Zealand Weeds Key
- An interactive identification key to the weeds of New Zealand. Developed at Landcare Research.
New
Zealand Plant Conservation Network naturalised plants
- Search for information on more than 2500 naturalised and weedy plants.
 New
Zealand Plant Protection Society
- Their main objective: "To pool and exchange information on the biology
of weeds, invertebrate and vertebrate pests, pathogens and beneficial organisms
and methods for modifying their effects."
-
 Massey
University Weeds Database- A site providing information about New Zealand weeds and weed control.
It has a series of pages showing pictures of New Zealand weeds, notes on
identification and control. It also provides information on a university
paper entitled Controlling Weeds.
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