The South Coast is awash with yellow as the Mexican sunflowers come into flower. Dramatically beautiful flowers atop dull green bushes with large, somewhat hairy five-fingered leaves, have taken over most of our verges and open spaces.
Pretty as they are, Mexican sunflowers are so invasive that they are ranked Class 1/1A Alien Invasive Plants (AIPs) in South Africa.
As far as possible, land owners are legally required to remove them, as they displace indigenous vegetation. This happens through a process called allelopathy, in which they release chemicals that inhibit the growth of surrounding vegetation.
Please remove Mexican sunflowers wherever possible.
They are relatively easy to pull out by the roots and, if left to dry out, can be composted. They produce masses of fine, light seeds that are easily spread by the wind – so now is the time to get them out of the ground, before they form seeds.
When you remove Mexican sunflowers, please remember that new AIPs will quickly grow in open, disturbed areas. Various sun-loving indigenous gems can be planted to replace these invaders, including agapanthus, dietes and black-eyed susans.
Agapanthus (aggies) – also called blue lily, bloulelie, agapant (Afrikaans), isicakathi (isiXhosa) and ubani (isiZulu) – make a spectacular show along verges.
It’s regarded as a magical and medicinal plant, and a plant of love. The Latin name comes from agape – love and anthos – flower, and amaXhosa regard it as a flower of fertility and pregnancy.
Dietes grandiflora, commonly known as the rain lily, large wild iris or fairy iris (English); groot wilde-iris (Afrikaans) or isiqungasehlati (isiZulu), loves the sun and looks lovely on pavements.
Dietes bicolor, known as the yellow wild iris or peacock flower in English and uintjie or poublom in Afrikaans, is easy to grow and doesn’t mind being in semi-shade.
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