LANDING at OR Tambo airport recently for a stint in Johannesburg, passengers were greeted with fields surrounding the runways awash with beautiful pastel pink Cosmos.
A drive in to the foothills of the Drakensberg at this time of year will also reveal these aliens brightening the dusty landscape.
I love how they dance in the breeze, their bright faces turned to the sun. They always have the ability to make me smile. The accepted wisdom on the presence of Cosmos is that the seeds were brought into the country in horse fodder imported from South America by the British during the Boer War.
It certainly is a spectacular sight, but the jury is still out on whether Cosmos is a threat to our natural environment, as it prefers to grow in disturbed soil, on the side of roads and along mealie fields on farms.
The other breath-taking sight in Gauteng and here in KwaZulu-Natal at this time of the year is the pretty little pink Pom Pom weed. In Muldersdrift it is rife, growing in grasslands and on the side of the roads. It has even populated the land around the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria.
While still not too prolific in this area, conservationists are concerned that it may take hold in our few remaining grasslands because this little beauty is a killer and needs to be destroyed.
Its scientific name is Campuloclinium macrocephalum and comes from the Asteraceae family. It is a native of central and South America and its invasive status in South Africa is category 1.
Because it is so pretty people tend to regard it as benign and may collect its prolific seeds and rhizomes to plant in their gardens. This would be a serious offence and could result in a fine.
But how can something so beautiful be so dangerous? Its threat to the environment is that it grows easily from seed and regenerates from its underground rhizomes. Once it takes hold it causes serious degradation of the veld, taking over large swathes of grazing land and threatening the biodiversity of the area. Cattle find the weed unpalatable, so it reduces the grazing capacity of farm lands.
This weed grows up to 1,3m in height and has green stems. The leaves are concentrated at the base of the plant. The bark is green to purple and is covered with hairs. The leaves are lance-shaped. The flowerheads are pink, surrounded by purple bracts from December to March. If seen please report its location to your local parks department.
Another plant which has become a problem in various parts of the country is pampas grass. How I remember decades ago when Pampas grass was the “must have” for the garden. Everybody who was “with it” in the swinging 60s had Pampas grass in their gardens. How ironic that the generation which demanded rejected the constraints of an earlier generation should be responsible for the spread of this invasive grass which threaten grasslands in Gauteng and will surely be found in a field near you soon.
Sadly, it is misguided gardeners in South Africa and not doubt in other countries, who are responsible for the introduction and spread of new and existing invasive aliens. These garden escapes are hard to control when their flowers are particularly beautiful, because beautiful blooms are what people want.
So a small request, think carefully about what you are planting, and if you see those pretty pink pompoms – kill them!
