Tradescantia - also known as wandering jew - is a weed that could completely change the ecosystem in a precious remnant of kahikatea forest near Whanganui, ecologist Colin Ogle says.
Ogle is the chairman of Friends of Gordon Park, a group of volunteers who help the Conservation Department by weeding at Gordon Park, near Whanganui East, fortnightly. He's delighted the department (DoC) has obtained funding from the Threatened Species Fund to spray the creeping weedy menace.
Tradescantia is a South American plant and common weed in Whanganui. At Gordon Park it threatens all native ground cover plants and regenerating seedlings and has to be totally eradicated.
"The areas where we knew small patches are now big patches, and we find patches in places where we haven't seen it before. It doesn't spread by seed but only by fragments," Ogle said.
He wonders whether flood waters may move the fragments around.
