Scientific name: Senecio madagascariensis
Family: Asteraceae
Status: Fireweed is a Weed of National Significance. It is declared a weed in the ACT, NSW, QLD and WA.

Control: Declared a noxious weed throughout NSW, and it is the responsibility of the owners of private land as well as their occupants to ensure effective measures are taken to control infestations. Native to southern Africa, fireweed is a daisy-like herb. It was first recorded in Australia in the Hunter Valley in 1918. It is thought to have arrived in the ballast of ships. Fireweed spreads slowly at first, but, in the past 30 years, has rapidly increased its range, as an average plant can produce 10,000 seeds per year.

This weed is quite common around the greater Long Reef area and occasionally due to wind blown seeds, this weed turns up on Reefcare’s site at the headland.

Scientific name: Parietaria judaica
Family: Malvaceae
Status: Under the Noxious Weeds Act 1993, Asthma Weed is a declared Class 4 noxious weed where small infestations on privately owned land, all plants must be removed or destroyed. For large infestations, the spatial extent must be reduced by a minimum of 25% annually. Asthma weed is related to stinging nettles, and is a declared noxious weed, Class 4, in the Sydney area.

Control: Declared noxious weed throughout NSW it is the responsibility of the owners of private land as well as their occupants to ensure effective measures are taken to control infestations. A perennial herb with erect, reddish-green stems about 1m tall that originates from Europe, western and central Asia and northern Africa.  A common weed along roadsides and in gardens especially where there is seepage.  It produces a central, greenish female flower and bisexual flowers on its laterals. The pollen can cause a severe allergic reaction in some people such as hay fever, conjunctivitis, rhinitis and asthma - hence its common name. It spreads mainly by seed dispersed by animals, people and also machinery. It is also a weed in New Zealand as well as North and South America.

This weed was not seen Reefcare’s site until the Northern Beaches Council had contractor’s clear an area just west of the main track near the bottom before the track forks and plant a variety of coastal species.  The Asthma weed is all through this one area, so no doubt a weed introduced by Council’s contractors.  Reefcare seem to be left with trying to control this weed since 2020, as little follow up weeding seems to have been done by the contractors who planted the area.

Scientific name: Parapholis incurva
Family: Poaceae
Status: Naturalised

Control: This grass is quite easy to pull out, but with a big infestation to be time economical and if possible, spraying when in the growth stage around September.

Barbed Grass is a tufted annual up to 30 centimetres high, with green flowers from September to December and then fruits October–December, It is a native to Mediterranean and western Europe, Asia and northern Africa, and widely naturalised elsewhere including through the southern half of Australia, from W.A. to N.S.W, including eastern regions of Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands.

This grass likes saline soils subject to flooding, or coastal sandy and rocky places – hence no surprise that from the top of Long Reef at the whale sculpture it is found all along the path – a few years ago around 2023 this weed appeared at the top of the track just below the whale sculpture, but now (2026) this barbed Grass can be found heading out from each side of the track (mainly northern side of track) to the bottom of the track into our lovely north eastern dune area.

Scientific name: Chrysanthemoides Monilifera subsp. rotundata
Family: Asteraceae
Status: Weed of National Significance

Control: This is a native of South Africa listed as one of Australia’s Twenty Weeds of National Significance occurring all along of the NSW coast into Qld and Victoria, with almost pure stands of 220km. The total area infested in Australia is estimated to be around 70,000 hectares

Earliest records indicate there was Bitou bush in the Stockton area near Newcastle, NSW, around 1908 but from around 1946 it was planted deliberately along the NSW coast by the Soil Conservation Service of NSW to aid in erosion control and post-mining rehabilitation

Bitou bush is an aggressive weed in coastal dune vegetation where it can out compete, and in many cases totally eliminate the native flora becoming a mono-culture.

Bitou Bush control at Long Reef has been assisted by Warringah Council (now Northern Beaches Council), about 12 years ago introducing the bitou leaf roller moth after extensive testing both in South Africa and Australia. The larvae feed on the shoot tips, then move to older leaves as they mature. The bitou leaf roller moth has been shown to be host-specific, surviving on bitou bush and its close relative, boneseed.

The bulk of the bitou bush elimination at Long Reef is by a lot of physical work by Reefcare volunteers, cutting back the large bushes to the truck and then ‘cutting and pasting’ the trunk. The area has to be monitored for new seedlings which constantly appear; they are pulled out by hand. A mature bitou bush can produce up to 50,000+ seeds per plant per year with viability of seed over 2 to years.

Scientific name: Asparagus aethiopicus
Family: Asparagaceae
Status: Weed of National Significance

Control: Asparagus fern competes and smothers native ground cover and understorey plants, preventing other species from germinating and establishing due to it forming impenetrable thickets that inhibit regeneration. It is considered one of Australia’s worse weeds, a serious weed in bushland; chiefly in coastal districts north from Sussex Inlet; but also in Qld, Vic, SA, and WA.

It can grow into a very large mass that it dense and several metres across and with it’s rather sharp needle like leaves and spikes on the stem it is very hard to work on to remove. Any fragments of rhizomes can also propagate new plants. Underground it forms dense root mates of rhizomes and tubers, which make removal and control exceeding difficult. It has a prolific seed production as they are spread by animals especially birds, making eradication very challenging, requiring long term integrated management strategies, including mechanical removal, chemical treatments and monitoring to prevent seed spread. Preventing the plant from fruiting is the most cost-effective control measure. Asparagus fern is a huge big problem at Long Reef, especially as the birds love dropping the seeds in Lomandara and fence lines, make it really, really difficult to get to the rhizome. There are 1000’s of seedings from one end of the site to the other.

Scientific name: Solanum nigrum
Family: Solanaceae
Status: An environmental weed in Victoria, New South Wales, W.A., QLD and N.T.

Control: Native to Eurasa, the herb, blackberry nightshade can be a serious agricultural weed when it competes with crops. It has been reported as a weed in 61 countries and 37 crops where herbicides are used to control the plant. It competes with native vegetation and produces a large quantity of seeds, which remain viable for several years.

It thrives in a variety of environments, including coastal areas such as Long Reef, woodlands, and disturbed sites like roadsides. It is propagated by seeds and is pollinated by insects. Once established, it is drought-tolerant making it a resilient weedy species. This plant of the Solanaceae family also includes crops such as tomatoes, potatoes, peppers, and eggplants. The plant is both revered for its medicinal properties and feared for its toxicity, making it a subject of both admiration and caution.

The fruit was recorded as a famine food in 15th-century China and is cultivated as a food crop in Africa and North America yet, it also had medicinal purposes in many countries dating back to ancient Greece.

The leaves and berries are poisonous when uncooked. At Long Reef we are able to pull the weed when seen – which is often around autumn time – but needs to be bagged and taken off site when the plant has the green or black berries. It is important to remove the plant before it spreads, so each year this is target species by Reefcare at Long Reef.