Nassella trichotoma

Serrated Tussock at Isaacs, ACT

Request use of media

Identification history

	Nassella trichotoma	17 May 2023	natureguy
	Nassella trichotoma	17 May 2023	Mike

Identify this sighting

Please Login or Register to identify this sighting.

4 comments

Mike wrote:

17 May 2023

@waltraud is not the only one with serrated tussock.

waltraud wrote:

23 May 2023

I know Mike. Do you have suggestions how to treat in the long term? ST comes back at some of the notorious spots that we sprayed over the past decades. It seems less prevalent where we direct seeded competitive grasses but grass seeds are horrible expensive....

MichaelMulvaney wrote:

24 May 2023

Waltraud like you I have been spraying serrated tussock for 30 years. We are winning on Red Hill but seed does seem to persist and it does continue to pop up in treated areas long after I thought I had got rid of it. I think it does tend to stay repressed when there is good native grass cover so drought and overgrazing by rabbits and kangaroos aid it. I think with this one we need to have a frame of mind that we can push it back and reduce it to a minor weed (in terms of area covered) but it is one that needs long term vigilance.

waltraud wrote:

24 May 2023

Many thanks, Michael. I agree that competitive ground cover is important. ST seems a gap filler in degraded and over-grazed sites. ST certainly pops up stubbornly at notorious ST sites on Mt Majura that from time to time FoMM members and Parks staff treated over the years, however, I wonder whether seeds are also transported over distance by wind and by the eddies created by hills. There is or was a huge amount of ST on Mt Majura's east slope on leased farmland and along tracks in the Majura pine plantation. I don't know how long seeds are viable in the soil though. I'm afraid the on-and-off treatment may also help to keep a crop - there is no long-term management commitment or Mount Majura-specific management plan for ST (or CNG or ALG) that I know of; I asked for many years but I think it doesn't exist.

Please Login or Register to comment.