Fiji on alert for dangerous plant

THE Department of Agriculture in Fiji is advising people against growing a type of ornamental plant commonly known as Fireworks.
The plant species, Clerodendrum quadriloculare, is an introduced plant native to the Philippines and Papua New Guinea and is hard to eradicate.
Department senior research officer (tropical weed research unit), Dr Apaitia Macanawai said in a statement the plant could be propagated via stem cuttings, suckers and seeds.
He said the reproductive attributes of the plant, which may have been deliberately brought into the country, made the plant undesirable as an ornamental plant.
The call by the department follows a complaint by Bob Pratt of Pacific Harbour on the difficulty of controlling the plant.
Pratt said he cut down the shrub and, where possible, dug up the roots but the shrubs continued to appear in numbers and he noticed their roots spread rapidly.
He sent photos of the invasive weed to enable the department’s research officers to identify the weed and Macanawai advised him to use Glyphosate to manage the plant.
Macanawai said: “You need to slash off the top canopy and make a slit on top of the slashed stem and then apply the chemical immediately on the slit part.
“Mix the chemical solution in a plastic bottle and punch a nail onto the lid to create a hole then use this bottle as a hand sprayer.
“The only herbicide that we have tested found to be effective against Clerodendrum quadriloculare when applied as foliar spray was Invader (600g/L triclopyr present as butoxyethyl ester).”