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Invasive Garden Plants in Australia   Escaped invasive garden plants are the biggest source of agricultural and environmental weeds, cost farmers $100m's each year, and just one escaped invasive garden plant - Lantana - now degrades over 4 million hectares of Australia's environment. A CSIRO report (Jumping the Garden Fence), commissioned by WWF-Australia, found that many escaped invasive garden plants are still advertised for sale, including 5 on the Weeds of National Significance list, 6 on the Alert List of Environmental Weeds list, and 9 on the 100 World's Worst Invasive Alien Species list. The report, written by senior CSIRO scientists, identifies 90 of the most serious invasive garden plants for sale nominated by experts (10 for each state and the ACT and 20 from NT) and makes seven recommendations proposed to lessen the overall impact of invasive plant species deliberately introduced for horticulture and currently available for sale (Summary of Recommendations). Growing Low Impact Garden Plants One of the ways to reduce the threat posed by invasive garden plants is to buy similar plants that are non-invasive. The Nursery Industry Association of NSW has undertaken a project to publish a booklet identifying and describing replacement species. The booklet is available for download - 'Grow Me Instead' (pdf 1.3mb). The Nursery Industry Association of SA, with others, have also produced a similar booklet for the Greater Adelaide Region. To avoid all invasive garden plants that are able to jump the garden fence, have a look at the "National List of Invasive and Potentially Invasive Garden Plants". Ninety invasive garden plants by State / Territory The 'Garden Escapees' section of the Weeds Australia web site and the addition of ninety serious invasive garden plants to the on-line interactive weed identification facility were made possible through funding by WWF-Australia and the Albert George and Nancy Caroline Youngman Trust as managed by Equity Trustees.
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