When a mystery plant seems to be doing a bit too well on your property, that should immediately flash red warning lights.
A Kiwi homeowner got the hard truth from the r/nzgardening subreddit after sharing pictures and details of a mystery plant growing on the hillside behind their fence.
The Redditor noted the plant "consists of vertical stems that are very flexible and bendy and supported by other plants/trees." Each plant had a runner on the ground and then stems and roots growing between roughly three and nine feet in height.
They said it was "really quite dense," and outcompeting gorse plants. They didn't mind that as unwanted gorse seedlings had gotten into their yard.
Meanwhile, they were hoping to put in native flax to benefit a local bird, the tui. They were OK with the mystery plant if it cut down on erosion.
They concluded by asking: "What is this plant and is there anything I should do about it?"
Watch now: Giant snails invading New York City?
A Redditor succinctly gave them the lowdown: "Cape Ivy. Invasive and common around Wellington. Cut it back and slowly displace. It will smother all other competition."
The user was right on. Around the world, heavily invasive Cape ivy has a fearsome reputation, with the U.S. National Park Service going as far as to call it the "California coast's biggest and baddest weed."
Not to discourage the OP, but the Agricultural Research Service has gone as far as to develop a biocontrol insect to take on the noxious weed. While that's unlikely to be an option for the OP, Redditors advised chopping down as much of it as possible, including on the ground.
It is worth commending the OP's instinct to cultivate native plants instead of Cape ivy. That can greatly help pollinators like the tui bird that help protect our food supply in a mutually beneficial relationship.
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On the opposite side of the coin, invasive plants can outcompete native ones, causing damage to the local ecosystem and even infrastructure.
The OP faces an uphill battle, literally, to get it under control.
"I'm probably not going to be able to completely eliminate it because it's a cliff edge," they conceded.
A user with the same dilemma wrote: "Yeah it's tricky to deal with. My other half who gallantly goes hanging over our steep slope to deal with it, tells me it's also very juicy."
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