Tuateawa weed spot: Kikuyu Grass and Blackberry.

In the past scratched legs were the order of the day. Brambles were in plague proportions. The only compensation being the huge quantities of blackberries that could be gathered over the Xmas period.

When goats were brought in alongside the dry stock things were in better balance. The cows kept the kikuyu fairly short but created bare spots where the brambles could establish. The goats ate the brambles and just about anything else they could get their mouths around. There were still enough blackberry patches although pickings were a little slimmer.

Today there are no goats, no other grazing stock (except rabbits) and much reduced numbers of brambles. What we do have is a very dense cover of kikuyu grass, knee deep and more, in those areas that were taken out of grazing ten or so years ago.

It is fair to assume that these changes are connected. The kikuyu largely suppresses the blackberry. Plants that do rise above its scrambling stems are heavily eaten by shield bugs. The same applies to titree plants. These usually act as nurse plants as pasture reverts to native bush. Regeneration of natural bush is likely to be delayed in areas of heavy kikuyu presence. Kikuyu is probably the most prevalent noxious weed whilst, at the same time, being the least noticed.

There is also the possibility that it is responsible for the local extinction of an attractive native plant. Creeping fuchsia is not a rare plant but it does have a narrow area above the high tide mark that it prefers. In the past it was quite abundant in this position, just below Rabart's Road. It could still be there. However, it was not located during two recent, but admittedly, not exhaustive searches. The kikuyu was doing very well!