Start date: January 1999
End date: June 2013

Melissa Setter, Centre for Wet Tropics Agriculture
melissa.setter@deedi.qld.gov.au

Increase our understanding of the ecology and control options of key wet tropics weeds to improve their management.

Weeds are a major threat to the high economic, environmental and social value of land in the wet tropics. Many wet tropics weeds are relatively recent arrivals and have not reached the full extent of their range and impact. Much of the basic ecological knowledge required to develop comprehensive long-term control strategies for wet tropics weeds is unavailable. This project conducts field, shadehouse and laboratory experiments on a number of priority weed species. Research findings will enable land managers to more effectively limit weed impacts on natural ecosystems, primary industries and tourism.

This research project has provided new information on the ecology of key wet tropics weeds, including:

• pond apple seed longevity, vectors of spread (e.g. water, animals), potential of GIS for mapping, age to reproduction, timing of fruit set and volume of fruit production
• Siam weed seed longevity, resources required to eradicate isolated infestations and effect of herbicides on seed viability in situ
• hymenachne seed longevity and the use of revegetation as a management tool
• miconia timing of flowering and fruit production
• Koster's curse seedling survival, growth rates and age to reproduction, volumes of fruit production and plant response to damage.

An experiment on the mechanical control of pond apple using heavy machinery is currently underway.

In an initial foliar herbicide screening trial on navua sedge, none of the treatments adequately controlled navua sedge. Further trials have since been initiated.

Field and glasshouse trials on the control of bog moss have yielded promising preliminary results.

• Westcott, DA, Setter, M, Bradford, MG, McKeown, A and Setter, S 2008, 'Cassowary dispersal of the invasive pond apple in a tropical rainforest: the contribution of subordinate dispersal modes in invasion', Diversity and Distributions 14(2): 432-9.
• Mason, LB, Setter, MJ, Setter, SD, Hardy, T and Graham, MF 2008, 'Ocean dispersal modelling for propagules of pond apple (Annona glabra L.)', in RD van Klinken, VA Osten, FD Panetta and JC Scanlan (eds), Proceedings of the 16th Australian Weeds Conference, Queensland Weeds Society, Brisbane, pp 519-21.
• Setter, SD, Setter, MJ, Graham, MF and Vitelli, JS 2008, 'Buoyancy and germination of pond apple (Annona glabra L.) propagules in fresh and salt water', in RD van Klinken, VA Osten, FD Panetta and JC Scanlan (eds), Proceedings of the 16th Australian Weeds Conference, Queensland Weeds Society, Brisbane, pp 140-2.

• Land Protection Fund
• Queensland Government
• Natural Heritage Trust
• National Four Tropical Weeds Eradication Program

• Australian Maritime College, Marine Modelling Unit
• Cairns Regional Council
• Cassowary Coast Regional Council
• CSIRO Ecosystem Sciences
• Far North Queensland Regional Organisation of Councils
• National Siam Weed Eradication Program
• National Four Tropical Weeds Eradication Program

• Bog moss (Mayaca fluviatilis)
• Hairy senna (Senna hirsuta)
• Harungana (Harungana madagascariensis)
• Hymenachne (Hymenachne amplexicaulis)
• Koster's curse (Clidemia hirta)
• Miconia (Miconia spp.)
• Mikania vine (Mikania micrantha)
• Navua sedge (Cyperus aromaticus) 
• Neem tree (Azadirachta indica)
• Pond apple (Annona glabra)
• Siam weed (Chromolaena odorata)
• Sicklepod (Senna obtusifolia)
• Tobacco weed (Elephantopus mollis)