• Login
  • Register
  • Home
  • Lifestyle File
    • Livestock & Pets
    • Running the Farm
    • Rural People & Issues
  • Forums
  • More
    • Calculators
    • Vet talks
    • Expert advice
    • Fun stuff
  • Courses
LSB - Lifestyle Block
  • Home
  • Lifestyle File
    • Livestock & Pets
    • Running the Farm
    • Rural People & Issues
  • Forums
  • More
    • Calculators
    • Vet talks
    • Expert advice
    • Fun stuff
  • Courses

Weeds


This section contains articles on weeds you may find on your farm and how to deal with them. There are hundreds of other useful articles in our lifestyle file. If you're looking for something in particular then use the search box above. If not, then browse the article titles and see what there is to help you. If you can't find an answer here then why not ask in our discussion forums? One of the very friendly and helpful members is sure to be able to help you.

New articles are added all the time so don't forget to check back here regularly!

 


Weeds
 

Keep an eye out for worst weed in world - velvetleaf

AgResearch weed scientist Trevor James says he didn't know what he was looking at, at first. It was a photograph of velvetleaf (Abutilon theophrasti), one of the worst weeds in America and possibly the world.  And it had just been found growing in the Waikato.

Read more

Hemlock

Famously known as the poison which killed Socrates, hemlock is alive and living in New Zealand, and is still capable of causing death or at least birth defects in pregnant animals which eat the foliage.

Read more

Nightshade

Ranging from low weeds to large bushes the nightshades all have one thing in common – they are definitely not for eating.  

Read more

Arums

Do you remember seeing photos of brides from the 1930s each clutching a huge and unwieldy spray of what are commonly called arum lilies?

Read more

Fireweed

“Write about fireweed,” said a friend, “I’ve got it growing all over the place”.

Read more

Red Dead Nettle and Staggerweed

Despite their alarming names, these are two rather inoffensive weeds, more often found in gardens and crops rather than pasture as they prefer loose, fertile soils.

Read more

Barley Grass

Barley grass is one of nature’s survivors.

Read more

Control Californian Thistles

Topping two or three times a year, and a follow-up grazing provides very good Californian thistle control.

Read more

Thistles

Thistles were already a problem in New Zealand by the 1850s.

Read more

Dandelions And Friends

With un-mown lawns and pasture sprinkled with the cheerful yellow flowers of dandelions and other ‘flatweeds’, we look at their names and characteristics.

Read more

Yorkshire Fog

These days, with the heavy emphasis on achieving maximum production from our pastures, the ‘preferred’ species are perennial ryegrasses and white clover.

Read more

Plantain

When is a weed not a weed?  Well, possibly when it’s a plantain.

Read more

Storksbill

As a member of the geranium family the winter weed we know as storksbill was originally labelled by that great name dropper Linnaeus in 1753 as Geranium cicutarium.

Read more

Cleavers

Cleavers is that maddening weed which appears everywhere in early summer and climbs through, round and over grasses and low shrubs, trying to smother everything.

Read more

Water pepper and willow weed

WATER PEPPER AND WILLOW WEED (Persicaria hydropiper and persicaria persicaria)

These two damp-loving weeds are often confused, so we’ll sort them out for you.

Read more

Mallow

 

Mallow varieties have a variety of botanical names, can grow up to 2 metres tall, or crawl along the ground, or be various sizes in between.

Read more

Agapanthus

This tough South African import is not the sort of immigrant that our environment needs.

Read more

Brush wattle

A very fast-growing, though thankfully short-lived tree - popping up on cliffs, banks, hillsides, slips, and cuttings. 

Read more

Lantana

This smelly South American scrambler is happy sneaking its way through, under, and over whatever plants and trees get in its way.

Read more

Jasminum polyanthum

This Chinese climber is loved for its strong scent and delicate white flowers and hated for its tough, vigorous, twining stems that rapidly swamp everything it grows over.

Read more

Yellow ginger

This exotic, ginger-scented perennial with massive, taro-like rhizomes close to the surface has shiny leaves and cream-coloured flowers overlapping in cone-like clusters from May to June.

Read more

Aluminium plant, also known as artillery plant

Despite its silver-coated leaves, this creeping groundcover is no little treasure. 

Read more

Elephant ear

This large, luscious Tahitian interloper has leathery deep green arrow-shaped leaves and thick trunk-like stems, supported by a fleshy underground root system.

Read more

Periwinkle

This macho Mediterranean creeper is a hard one to get control of once it is established.

Read more

Alligator weed

Originally from Brazil, the exotic-sounding alligator weed is a dangerous invader sneaking into wetlands, rivers, and even subdivisions around the North Island. 

Read more

Shrub balsam: Impatiens sodenii

Like a giant version of the much loved busy Lizzies, shrub balsam can reach up to 2m in height.

Read more

Japanese honeysuckle : Lonicera japonica

This vine from Asia was first established in the wild in New Zealand as early as 1926.

Read more

Chinese privet

Chinese privet was planted extensively throughout towns and rural areas as hedging. It has small, glossy, bright green leaves with smooth edges, and it produces tiny, smelly, creamy flowers from October to January.

Read more

Cutting vines and climbers down to size

One of the most destructive groups of weeds is vines and climbers that in many cases started life as ornamental garden plants.

Read more

Jerusalem cherry : Solanum pseudocapsicum

Jerusalem cherry tends to turn up in shady places – under trees, grazed bush remnants, along river and stream banks, behind old sheds, and along hedgerows.

Read more
  • Livestock & Pets
    Livestock & Pets
    • The Basics
    • Cattle
      Cattle
      • Cattle Behaviour
      • Cattle Handling
      • Calves & Calving
    • Sheep
    • Goats
      Goats
      • Dairy Goats
      • Angora Goats
    • Horses and Other Equines
      Horses and Other Equines
      • Donkeys
      • Horse Behaviour
    • Working dogs
    • Pigs
    • Poultry
    • Animal Breeding
    • Animal Nutrition
    • Alpaca
    • Other Species
  • Running the Farm
    Running the Farm
    • Legal Responsibilities
    • Farming Diary
    • LSB Smart Buyer's Guide to...
    • Weeds
      Weeds
      • Weedbuster's Wicked Weeds
    • Pests
    • Fencing
    • Pasture & Fertiliser
    • Feed & Forage
    • Farm Upkeep
    • Equipment & Machinery
    • Crops
    • Sustainable Farming
    • Water Management
  • Rural People & Issues
    Rural People & Issues
    • Down to the Ground
    • Rural Voice
    • The Good Oil
    • Treading Lightly
    • Middelmost
    • Middelmost Dairy Farm
    • Recipes
      Recipes
      • First Catch Your Hare
    • Country Gardening
    • Property
    • When the shoestring is a bit short

Livestock & Pets

  • Sheep
  • Alpacas
  • Other species
  • The Basics
  • Cattle
  • Cattle behaviour
  • Calves and calving
  • Cattle handling
  • Goats
  • Dairy goats
  • Angora goats
  • Horses & other Equines
  • Horse behaviour
  • Donkeys
  • Pigs
  • Poultry
  • Working Dogs
  • Animal Breeding
  • Animal Nutrition

Rural People & Issues

  • Rural Voice
  • The Good Oil
  • Treading Lightly
  • Letter from Middelmost
  • Recipes
  • First catch your hare
  • Gardening
  • Cheese making
  • Property
  • When the shoestring is a bit short
  • Cheese making
  • Letters from Middelmost Dairy Farm

More news

 Summer Wine Blondie with her 10-day old kids, Beckie & Bella. Bred
Michael Trotter

New Zealand Arapawa goats

Alison Sutherland - Jul 21, 2021
dairy goats

Dairy goats: Not for the faint hearted

Maureen Skilton - May 26, 2021
Angora goats

The magic of mohair

Lucy Brake - Dec 19, 2018

© 2022 LSB Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Privacy policy