Native alternatives to common exotic plants

The Shire's weed guide names the usual routes: berries that birds, gulls and foxes carry into bushland; garden waste dumped near reserves and roadsides; seed and runners that spread from beachside gardens into the dunes; and seed that washes down gutters into wetlands. Only about 30% of the Peninsula's native vegetation remains, and more than half of it is on private land, so what grows in gardens reaches the bush quickly.

"Declared noxious weed" is a legal status under Victoria's Catchment and Land Protection Act 1994, with obligations on landowners. "Environmental weed" is Agriculture Victoria's term for plants that damage bushland but aren't declared. Most plants below are environmental weeds on the Peninsula; a couple are Australian natives from elsewhere behaving badly outside their home range.

• Instead of

  Agapanthus

  Agapanthus praecox

  Spreads from dumped garden waste and seed into roadsides, bushland and waterways.

  Try

  Flax lily (Dianella) or swamp lily (Crinum pedunculatum)

  Clumping strappy border, 0.6 to 1 m

• Instead of

  Cotoneaster

  Cotoneaster species

  Berries hang for months and birds carry them into bushland and farmland.

  Try

  Bottlebrush (Callistemon 'Kings Park Special') or pin-cushion hakea (Hakea laurina)

  Screen or hedge to 5 m

• Instead of

  Myrtle-leaf milkwort

  Polygala myrtifolia

  Seed moves by water, birds, ants, dumped waste and beach gear along the coast.

  Try

  Mint bush (Prostanthera species)

  Bushy border or screen to 2 m

• Instead of

  Spanish heath

  Erica lusitanica

  Millions of tiny seeds blow and wash into coastal woodland and heath, and stay viable for years.

  Try

  Common heath (Epacris impressa, Victoria's floral emblem) or correa

  Upright border or informal hedge to 1 m

• Instead of

  Arum lily

  Zantedeschia aethiopica

  Seed and rhizome fragments wash down gutters and streams into wetlands.

  Try

  Purple flag iris (Patersonia sericea)

  Small clumping border or rockery plant

• Instead of

  English ivy

  Hedera helix

  Smothers trees and the ground beneath them; berries spread by birds and clippings take root.

  Try

  Native sarsaparilla (Hardenbergia violacea 'Happy Wanderer')

  Climber or groundcover, about 1 m

• Instead of

  Bluebell creeper

  Billardiera heterophylla

  A Western Australian native that smothers groundcovers here; berries spread by birds and foxes.

  Try

  Native sarsaparilla or native clematis (Clematis microphylla)

  Twining climber for a fence or trellis

• Instead of

  Sweet pittosporum

  Pittosporum undulatum

  Native to eastern Victoria but a weed outside its range; bird-spread berries colonise gullies.

  Try

  Lilly pilly (Acmena smithii 'minor') or white cloud tree (Melaleuca bracteata)

  Hedge or screen tree, 8 to 10 m

• Instead of

  Gazania

  Gazania linearis, G. rigens

  Seed and runners spread from beachside gardens into dunes, stopping native ground plants.

  Try

  Cut-leaf daisy (Brachyscome multifida) or native pigface (Carpobrotus rossii)

  Groundcover or rockery; pigface is salt-tolerant

• Instead of

  Mirror bush

  Coprosma repens

  Canopy smothers everything beneath it and threatens Coastal Moonah Woodland; gulls and foxes eat the berries.

  Try

  Boobialla (Myoporum insulare) or rough coprosma (Coprosma hirtella)

  Salt-tolerant coastal hedge, 1 to 6 m

Boneseed and freesia are also weeds on the Peninsula. They're left off this list until an institutional source pairs them with a native alternative.