PANIC ATTACK!

Panic grass was renamed to Guinea grass, (Megathyrsus maximus). As you might have guessed, it comes from Africa. It was introduced as a fodder species in northern Australia but is causing big problems in our area.

Guinea grass is a coloniser of disturbed sites, including roadsides, and will settle itself happily in our yards, invading lawns and choking out other vegetation. It is robust, carrying hundreds of seeds on each flower head and threatening our bushland by sheer weight of numbers.

It is a large, clumping, long-lived grass that can grow up to 3m tall. Its long narrow leaves are very large, up to 1m long, and 3.5cm wide. Its stem can be quite hairy. It has a large, much-branched seed head, 15-50 cm long, that has large numbers of flower spikelets which form seed that are green or purplish and drop to the ground in great numbers when ripe. Guinea Grass is flowering profusely now and through to late summer with masses of small rounded purple seeds.

Pic.John Sharples

We can keep Guinea Grass under control by mowing it before it sets seed and ensuring seed heads are binned. Of course the more effective control is removal, easily achieved, as the roots are quite shallow, a gentle tug by holding the base of the plant usually does the trick, or a garden knife to sever the roots. Again, the imperative is to make sure seed heads are not left anywhere on the ground.

As with all weeds we have green and red bin options available and this has helped enormously is reducing the amount of garden waste dumped in to our reserves.

Let’s all pull together, for a healthier Coal Point!