Invasive Weeds

Chlidemia (Chlidemia hirta) aka Koster's Curse

Quick Description:
In all my years of hiking, boar hunting, and running, THIS plant is easily THEE WORST case scenario.

In peak fruiting season (October through January), each clidemia plant produces nearly 5,000 seeds per day. On average, a square yard of clidemia produces an astounding 10 million seeds a year, each about the size of a period on this page.

Sheep will not eat the plant, and the tannin inside the fruits is poisonous to goats. The seeds can remain viable in the soil for up to 4 years.
Full Details on this plant here.

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Fireweed (Senecio madagascariensis)

Credit: Pacific Environmental Image Gallery

Quick Description:

~Info from: Maui News Editorial.

Against a green pasture, the yellow flowers are attractive, but only to those who don't know how much the invasive alien costs.

Haleakala and Ulupalakua ranches and other pasture owners have spent thousands of dollars trying to eradicate the pernicious plant that came to these shores from Australia. The state has admitted that seeds from the Senecio madagascariensis Poiret were mixed with carpet grass seeds added to mulch used on roadsides.

Each plant can produce 30,000 seeds a year. The seeds get spread by the wind, hiking boots, vehicles and passing animals. In addition to crowding out pasture grass, fireweed is toxic to cattle and horses, causing slow growth, illness, liver malfunction and sometimes death.

Eradicating fireweed is difficult. Grasslands can be cleared only to sprout again next year. 

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Kahili Ginger (Hedychium gardnerianum)

Credit: Hawaiigardening

Quick Description: The exotic South Asian ginger is one of the state’s most noxious alien weeds, its spread hastened by birds that feast on its bright scarlet berries and drop its seeds many miles away. The ginger displaces native mosses, ferns, and other shrubs that form the understory of the Hawaiian forest, while its sprawling, dense roots prevent rainfall from percolating into the water table — thus diminishing the forest’s critical role and function as a watershed.
~Info from: Nature.org

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Miconia (Miconia calvescens)

Credit: GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM 

Quick Description:
~Info from: Honolulu Star Bulletin Story.

A native of South America, the plant grows up to 50 feet tall with leaves more than a foot and a half wide and close to three feet long. Because its roots are shallow, mountain slopes occupied by it are susceptible to landslides.

Miconia can block sunlight to other plants, effectively killing them or stunting their growth.


Some seeds have been known to germinate six years after entering the soil.

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Pamakani (Ageratina adenophora)

Credit: Forest & Kim Starr

Quick Description:
This plant has been around for awhile.  My grandpa said he used to get hired to pull this plant.  It was actually decimated for the most part by the introduction of the "Gall Fly."  But it has since come back in great strength.  The Gall Fly is nowhere to be seen.  It's the one of a few weeds that I've seen that can come up in Uluhe Ferns, choke even them out, and kill them.

It can grow any elevation and is WIDESPREAD on Maui.

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Spanish Needle (Biden's pilosa)

Credit: Uniprot

Quick Description: is used as a medicinal plant in many regions of Africa, Asia and tropical America. Roots, leaves and seed have been reported to possess antibacterial, antidysenteric, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antimalarial, diuretic, hepato-protective and hypotensive activities. 

Lots of good uses, in flower or seed (needle) form, but a pretty formidable weed that annoyingly sticks to you everywhere.  Can be found on roadsides, yards, etc.

Credit: KeyWestGardenClub.com

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