Australian Weeds
There’s been some big news in the <a href="https://cactusjungle.com/archives/blog/exit.php?url_id=1900&entry_id=1737" title="http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/deadly-cactus-alert/57379.aspx" onmouseover="window.status=’http://nqr.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/deadly-cactus-alert/57379.aspx’;return true;" onmouseout="window.status=”;return true;">Australian Weed</a> business. A cactus has escaped and poses dangers to wildlife and cattle too.<br /><br /><div style="margin-left: 40px;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Department of Primary Industries (DPI&F) Biosecurity Queensland land protection officer, Jodie Sippel, said the Hudson pear cactus, a native of Mexico, has been found growing in Mundubbera Shire with a potential second site in the Monto area.<br />
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Hudson pear (Cylindropuntia rosea), is declared a Class 1 weed, which means it must be eradicated, she said.<br />
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It is highly invasive and spreads whenever an animal, vehicle or person brushes against it and dislodges plant segments that take root on contact with the ground.<br />
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The spines from Hudson pear pose a serious threat to people, horses, dogs, cattle, sheep and most wildlife….<br />
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Hudson pear was first detected in Australia, in NSW, in the 1960s.<br />
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According to some reports, its spread was aided by opal miners who deliberately grew them around their diggings to keep prowlers and thieves away. </span><br /></div><br />It has been in all the papers in Australia. This is just one reasonable article describing the mess that can happen when people take a pretty and/or functional ornamental plant into a new territory where it has no natural barriers to growth, and then it takes off causing problems far and wide. Even a cactus. A delicious cactus.<br /><br />
