Mistflower is a garden escapee that has invaded riparian areas, bush margins and pasture in the Sunshine Coast (with outliers in northern Queensland) in the North, extending South to southern NSW. Unlike many other invasive plants, mistflower has the ability to spread along riparian corridors into pristine catchment headwaters and negatively impact diversity in ecologically important areas such as the Blackall Range, Lamington NP, Springbrook NP, and Barrington Tops NP.
The Biological Control of Mistflower project proposal attached outlines the background, proposed aims, methodologies and outcomes for the project. The agreed objectives for the project are summarised as follows:
- Import and test the host specificity of the fungus, Entyloma ageratinae , for potential biological control of the introduced noxious weed, mistflower (Ageratina riparia)
- If host specific, then apply for permission to release and release the agent if approved
- Prior to releasing the agent, select release sites and monitor baseline data for use in determining effectiveness.
Mistflower is an environmental weed, so a request to Federal Agencies to fund such a programme is unlikely to succeed.
