Observations by alan_liefting

These photos are from a roadside infestation of Convulvulus on State Highway 25 near the town of Waitakaruru. There are long stretches of the roadside on the Huaraki Plains that have this invasive species.

Yet another ivy on a cabbage tree. Look how high this prick of a plant has gone up the the cabbage tree! Gotta get it on the NPPA.

I don't know if the cabbage tree is suffering because of the ivy or other factors such as age. Some of the dead branches may have died prior to the 2011 earthquake.

This is a climber that I cannot identify. It is next to State Highway 6 a few kilometres from Kawatiri Junction. I am fairly sure that it is not native and it looks like it is pretty keen on the idea of spreading.

I notified DOC but did not get a reply.

Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) alongside the road at DOC Marfells Beach campsite. It is also along the beach itself. Note that this is the common vegetable species and not the native Tetragonia tetragonioides.

It is likely that someone planted a patch and it has then spread. Spinach is like a weed in our garden here in Christchurch. The Marfells beach site may be a similar climate and therefore it would have a similar fecundity.

Ivy (Hedera helix) climbing up cabbage trees (Cordyline australis) in Christchurch.

Ivy is commonly seen around the streets of Christchurch and given that is spreads quite freely it should be on the National Pest Plant Accord. I think I recall an attempt being made to have it added to the 2012 update.

This fluorescent orange fungi was found under the plant at http://naturewatch.org.nz/observations/960352

This is the view after I removed the lank exotic grasses during restoration planting maintenance.

Can you spot the broadleaf? Yes, there it is in the middle of the photo completely overgrown with exotic grasses.

After releasing the plant it had a very spread out and sparsely leaved growth habit (as would be expected) rather than the more compact leafy form.

The plant is in a volunteer-planted area not far from Kennedys Bush on the Port Hills. It is retired farmland on Christchurch City Council administered land.

This plant is next to the Cass Lagoon track somewhere down from the Lagoon Saddle shelter and under the beech forest canopy. I thought someone had dropped some sort of Apiaceae family seeds out of their scroggin but it is more likely to be one of our alpine carrots (albeit deciding to grow in a more sheltered locale).

It is hard to see on this photo but it has a couple of seeded flower heads.

We have slugs that come up though the gaps in the floor of our house. (Am waiting for quake repairs to finish the DIY projects.) They come out at night and have quite the party leaving slug trails all over the place!

The picture is of one behind the bathroom door on its way home at 8am. Sorry about the dust! We keep on forgetting to clean there.

I think it is one of the native slugs. When moving this specimen is 80mm long. We also have them in the laundry and for a while they were feeding and living in our pantry. The cheek of those damn free-loading molluscs!