Trees & Shrubs Weed profiles & Native alternatives
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I’M A WEED
Pink Diosma
Pink Diosma
Coleonema pulchellum
Evergreen, erect, sweet-scented, dense, rounded shrub to 1 m high. It forms a single stem at the base, from where numerous slender, erect branches grow.
The leaves are needle-like about 0.8-1 cm long. The entire bush is covered with small, pink or often white, star-shaped flowers from May to October.
Pink Diosma
Threat / Problem
• Very fast-growing, vigorous competitor that invades native vegetation. Forms dense thickets.
• Produces prolific amounts of seed.
Spread
• New plants grow from seed. Seed spread by wind, ants, soil movement and dumping of garden waste.
Control
• Hand pull small plants.
• Cut and swab larger plants.
Pink Diosma
GROW ME INSTEAD
Fringe Myrtle
Fringe Myrtle
Calytrix tetragona
Heath-like rounded shrub to 2 m, with thin lightweight branches, small narrow aromatic bright green leaves. Flowers are white or pink, deeper in the pointed buds, clustered along arching branches.
After flowering, the bud-leaves hang on for some weeks, shiny and saucer-shaped with long curling threads, turning golden bronze and purplish. Easily propagated from cuttings, and likes well drained soil.
OR GROW ME
Ribbed Thryptomene
Ribbed Thryptomene
Thryptomene micrantha
Perennial shrub to 1-2 m high, with slender spreading branches. Leaves are small, opposite, crowded, 0.4-0.6 cm long, with oil glands that look like translucent dots.
Flowers are small, white, sometimes pinkish in bud, with five round petals, and occur in clusters of 2 to 3 along the current season’s branchlets from August to November.
Fruit is small, dry, with a solitary seed and does not split open at maturity.
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