Description
The Upper Macleay has the unfortunate honour of being the first identified Australian site for the noxious plant pest, Tropical Soda Apple. Later investigations found infestations at Wingham, Grafton, Bellingen, Coffs Harbour, Bonalbo, Casino, Murwillumbah and Wauchope.
Discovered in Australia in 2010, Tropical Soda Apple is a native of Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, but over the past 40 years has spread into the US, Africa, India, Nepal, West Indies and Mexico.
The weed is an aggressively invasive, prickly, thicket forming perennial shrub 1–2 m high. Its foliage is inedible to cattle, but they like to eat the fruit, which helps to spread the seed.
This agricultural pest forms thorny thickets so dense that animals are unable to access shade and water and can form a hectare sized thicket in six months.
Herbicides kill the plants, but do not kill the seeds inside the fruit. In the USA, this plant infested over half a million hectares in 5 years. In NSW it is critical to achieve site-based eradication of this plant before it becomes widespread.
