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Lantana Research Paper

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While Ralph Waldo Emerson believes a weed "is a plant whose virtues haven't been discovered" weeds are "a wild plant growing where it is not wanted and in competition with cultivated plants." When a plant or animal is physically moved by humans to an environment whey they didn’t naturally occur they are known as introduced species, also called alien species. Introduced species have been a vital aspect in the fight against biodiversity loss, controlling of invasive species and adaptation to climate change. An introduced species can be an essential part of conservation when a native species that plays a significant role in an ecosystem becomes extinct. However, on the other hand, introduced species can be immense, insidious, and usually irreversible. …show more content…

In 1841, it was brought to Australia as an ornamental garden plant. The weed quickly escaped domestic cultivation and within 20 years was established in the wild. Lantana was first declared noxious around 1920 and by the 1950s it had spread over more than 1600 kilometres of the eastern Australian coastline. In 2006, the invasion, establishment and spread of lantana was listed as a Key Threatening Process in Schedule 3 under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. Lantana is a Weed of National Significance. It is regarded as one of the worst weeds in Australia because of its invasiveness, potential for spread, and economic and environmental …show more content…

Stems are long and weak, square in cross section, prickly (spiny) with glands on young parts. Leaves are matt, mid-green, deeply veined and sometimes hairy. The lamina is pear or oval shaped, pointed to broadly-rounded apex, rounded base, round or regular toothed margins with wrinkled and strigose (sharp oppressed rigid bristly hairs) upper surface. When the leaves are crushed, a strong and distinctive odour is exuded. Flower heads have many smaller flowers. Each flower is tubular-shaped and have 4 spreading lobes (petals), changing colour with age. The colours would be a various combinations of white, yellow, orange, red or pink. Fruit is a berry or drupe arranged in clusters. The fruit is green and becomes purple-black when mature. This plant takes over huge areas usually in moist gullies, along drainage lines and around wetlands. It can be found scrambling high into tree tops. The intense growth of the weed restricts any plant to grow beneath it or around it. This results in plant growth being restricted and not allowing plantation to develop.
When birds eat the seeds from lantana they drop the remaining seeds into the remainder of the forest expanding the area of this weed. The intense bushland caused by lantana restricts the seeding growth of wattles. Wattles need lots of soil room to grow as fast as they do but because of the intensity of lantana it restricts the room for wattles thus killing it. Banksias

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