Anyone know what this weed is? It seems to be taking over trees, swamps, even old houses.

It's called Mikania. I don't think it has a common name. The full name is Mikania guaco. It is a composite, that is from the daisy family, but the heads are quite loose compared with others like daisies and sunflowers.

When did you take these pictures? The Mikania plague seems to have passed no with the cold weather. They are covering everything around November and December, at least here in Sok Kwu Wan. Here there is a worse weed, called "grey nickers" - have you seen that?

grey nickers? (knickers??) - do you have a picture? Why is it worse?

Is it the weed that's noxious or the one's that smoke it?

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My real name isn't Harry.
Slurp my bean juice.

It's the weed that is the problem. The leaves and stems are covered with the most vicious spines, but they are not obvious, so it is easy to walk into it and get impaled on the spikes. It's nickers because of the fruit - they are round and hard like marbles. I believe nickers is an old name for glass marbles used in children's games. There are expanding patches of this weed down near the beach towards Lo So Shing from Sok Wku Wan. I'll try to get a camera and take some pictures.

These pictures are from the Internet. I'll try to borrow a camera and get some picxtures of the Lo So Shing patches this weekend. I tell you, this is a mean S.O.B. and they are daft enough to whinge that it is an endangered species in South Australia.

The name is Caesalpinia crista also known as C. bonduc. Caesalpinia is the genus that contains those beautiful scarlet flowers seen at Hung Shing Yeh beach.

Interesting. This is the Caesalpinia pucherrima - sometimes called the red bird of paradise, that can be seen around yung Shue Wan gardens in red or yellow varieties. Pulcherrima means beautiful. Pity about the ugly cousin.

OK, you show us your grey knickers and we'll show you Guy's flies. Deal?

Chav wrote:

Yes, the pictures of the Mikania were taken at the beginning of December. These pics show that most of the weed has died down a bit. The bad news is that they are producing hundreds of millions of seeds that will float on the wind to cover the whole of the island.

Here at last some pictures of Caesalpinia bonduc, grey nickers, to show how it is taking over the waste greound near the pavillion on the Sok Kwu Wan side of Lo So Shing. If you look at the leaves it is hard to see the spines, but the spines are sharp and curved and backward pointing, and if you get into the thicket, it is very hard to get out again without ripping your clothes to shreds. The seed pods are covered with longer straight spines which are impossible to pick up with bare hands. A mean and vicious invader.

mm.......... have come across them all over Lamma, but not in such density as the ones in the photo.
If you get caught up in them, not just yr clothes that get caught............ the spines have a knack of hooking into yr skin from different angles and stretching the skin, really difficult to get away from.

Seems the Cas.. bonduc is an endangered species in NSW - any chance we can get onto them to harvest ours and take them away.

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My inability to tolerate your ambiguity is compounding my neurosis

The reason they're endangered in NSW is:
"The long term viability of the larger population may be threatened by the invasion of the habitat by weeds, particularly Buffalo Grass (Stenotaphrum secundatum), and Kikuyu grass (Pennisetum clandestinum), which are forming dense swards beneath plants of Caesalpinia bonduc (Hutton 2001). These weeds potentially limit the recruitment of seedlings of Caesalpinia bonduc."

So plant some Buffalo Grass to crowd them out.

How about collecting the seeds and planting them round those grave sites where hill fires always start. Direct eco-vigilante action now!

They'd just start more fires to burn the weeds up.

I guerss you're right. better go back to eco-vigilante direct action plan B: "Hang around grave sites next Ching Ming and beat up anybody burning paper"

It seems to be that time of the year again, when the Mikania starts to cover everything. There was a house there in Pak Kok before the Mikania covered it up.

The number one invasive plant that is taking over the world is surprisingly the delicate pink wood sorrel (Oxalis corymbosa). It originates in tropical America but is now considered a noxious weed in many countries because it just grows and spreads everywhere and chokes out native species. This shot was from the sides of the path near Mo Tat Wan this morning, but it seems to be everywhere there is a bit of waste ground. Have you seen it around? At least has a pleasant looking flower. The leaves look like three hearts joined together



Pink wood sorrel

That is indeed a pretty flower. Many of these invasive herbaceous plants seem to grow in open, disturbed areas or waste ground. They are symptomatic of a bigger problem - the native forest that used to make conditions too shady for something like this sorrel was cut/burned long ago. When I walk around Lamma through the few bits of beautiful intact forest on the island I imagine what it must have been like centuries ago. I remember reading that a utility company was planting trees on the island. Is this still going on? Have there been other efforts to restore the forest?

Tree planting is kind of a Lamma hobby and there have been numerous Lamma-zine stories about this. Just search for "forest" on the home page to find them.

Main tree planters over the years:
HK Electric, Green Lamma Green campaign (Conservancy Assoc.), ABLE (Lamma Forest project, and the Govt Dept. that planted 144, 000 trees to stop soil erosion aboout 2 years ago, etc.

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