23 May 2012

Watch for Woolly Nightshade

Hawke’s Bay residents are being asked to report any woolly nightshade plants to Hawke’s Bay Regional Council Biosecurity team.

Woolly nightshade is fast-growing and extremely invasive, and is a health hazard, as people handling it may suffer nausea and irritation of the skin and respiratory tract. The plant has spread widely throughout the region’s roadsides, rank pasture and gardens, and thrives in warmer parts of the region.

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“Woolly nightshade is an aggressive plant with a large amount of seeds and we are more than happy to come and remove this plant at no cost to the land owner,” says Alice McNatty, a HBRC biosecurity officer.

Ms McNatty says the shrub is fruiting at the moment, so can be more easily identified by its berries. Woolly nightshade can quickly grow into a small tree up to 10 metres high when it becomes more difficult to remove, so it is better to identify it early.

“As woolly nightshade is in relatively low numbers in Hawke’s Bay, HBRC is asking for the public’s help to locate plants, particularly in urban areas, their gardens, and in out of the way places,” says Ms McNatty.

Woolly nightshade can be identified by its distinctive hairy, oval leaves, and the small, pretty lilac flowers which are massed in clusters at the ends of branches. It forms green berries up to 18mm in diameter which yellow when ripe. Seedlings that establish in spring can flower by autumn and continue flowering.

Woolly nightshade is also known as tobacco weed, kerosene plant, flannel weed and eared nightshade.

Hawke’s Bay residents can report a woolly nightshade plant by phoning HBRC’s Biosecurity team phone 06 833 8083 or 833 8021, or call 0800 108 838.

More information on this plant and other plant pests is on HBRC’s website www.hbrc.govt.nz.

ENDS

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