{"id":770969,"date":"2026-07-01T00:19:30","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:19:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770969\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T00:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T00:19:30","slug":"imported-plant-pathogen-to-be-released-on-the-wind-to-battle-poisonous-lantana-weed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/770969\/","title":{"rendered":"Imported plant pathogen to be released on the wind to battle poisonous lantana weed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Under quarantine lockdown in Brisbane’s Ecosciences Precinct, an imported plant pathogen is being readied for release, its microscopic spores to be spread by the wind.<\/p>\n

Puccinia lantanae leaf blister rust is being incubated in a laboratory with strict biosecurity measures.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Scientists shower on exiting. (Supplied: Jason Callander Biosecurity Queensland)<\/p>\n

Scientists working with it change clothes on entry and shower in a stainless-steel decontamination room before leaving the lab.<\/p>\n

But that is about to change.<\/p>\n

The fungal biocontrol they have been nurturing is one last approval away from being deployed against one of Australia’s worst noxious weeds.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The lantana rust weakens the weed, damaging its leaves. (Supplied: Jason Callander Biosecurity Queensland)<\/p>\n

A poisonous, pretty, prolifically flowering shrub, Lantana camara was introduced from the Americas in the 1840s.<\/p>\n

But it escaped from gardens and has since invaded about 5 million hectares of pasture, bush and rainforest across New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, Western Australia and the Northern Territory.<\/p>\n

Banned from sale, the drought and heat-tolerant plant forms thickets that smother native habitat, kill livestock naive to its toxicity, and add dangerous fuel to bushfires.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Hardy and pretty, lantana was introduced to Australia as a garden plant. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n

A report by the National Lantana Group in 2007 estimated that lantana cost the grazing industry alone more than $100 million annually in lost productivity.<\/p>\n

Weeds Australia warns that all parts of the hardy plant are poisonous to humans if eaten, causing vomiting, diarrhoea, muscle weakness, breathing problems, and sometimes, death.<\/p>\n

Gloves are recommended to avoid touching it.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Weeds Australia has a lantana camara distribution map. (Supplied: Weeds Australia)<\/p>\n

Natural enemies<\/p>\n

In addition to herbicides and manual removal, more than 30 biological controls for lantana have been imported and released since 1914, 17 of which have become established.<\/p>\n

But birds quickly spread lantana seeds, and bug biocontrols, sensitive to seasonal conditions, have not kept up with the weed’s relentless march.<\/p>\n

In April, federal authorities recommended approving the Queensland Department of Primary Industries’s (DPI) application to release a South American blister-leaf rust against Lantana camara.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Jason Callander is overseeing the lantana rust program. (Supplied: Jason Callander Biosecurity Queensland)<\/p>\n

DPI scientist Jason Callander said the Puccinia lantanae fungus infects lantana’s leaves, shoot tips, and stems, resulting in dead tissue spots (cankers) and stem dieback.<\/p>\n

“We’re really optimistic that it’s going to get in and be very damaging to the young plants, to the regrowth, to the seedlings,” Mr Callander said.<\/p>\n

“We’re pretty excited about that.”<\/p>\n

The scientists have submitted a “release from quarantine protocol” request to the federal government’s plant imports operations team, the final approval required to start the program.<\/p>\n

They will spend the next year breeding up the rust to give to Landcare groups and local councils to help propagate and spread it.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Lantana quickly displaces plants, forming dense thickets. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n

Is it safe?<\/p>\n

The leaf blister rust pathogen was tested on 55 non-target plants most likely to be affected at the UK’s Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International.<\/p>\n

A 37-page risk analysis found it was “host-specific” to Lantana camara, and the risk to other species was “negligible”.<\/p>\n

While two native verbenas, V. africana and V. gaudichaudii, may suffer symptoms, it was “not anticipated” to cause “plant mortality”.<\/p>\n

“Both of these plants grow in central western Queensland, outside of the range that we expect the rust to be able to persist,” Mr Callander said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Birds and livestock can spread the seed in their manure. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n

Livestock and lantana<\/p>\n

Adding urgency to the need for a solution is lantana’s toxicity; it can kill cattle, sheep, goats, guinea pigs and rabbits.<\/p>\n

Joanne Connolly is a mobile cattle vet and hobby farmer at Nebo, about 100 kilometres south-west of Mackay in North Queensland.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Joanne Connolly has experienced lantana poisoning of her own stock. (Supplied: Joanne Connolly)<\/p>\n

When one of her steers ran to find shade, with mucous streaming from its nose, she suspected lantana poisoning.<\/p>\n

“If it’s bad enough, it can cause death,” Dr Connolly said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A runny nose is one of the symptoms. (Supplied: Joanne Connolly)<\/p>\n

The steer survived, but Dr Connolly said the weed’s toxins damage the liver, causing extreme sensitivity to the sun, lethargy, and yellowing around the eyes.<\/p>\n

“It can be quite dramatic; the skin can literally just start to lift off,” she said.<\/p>\n

\"Cattle<\/p>\n

Hungry cattle, newly introduced to lantana plants are most at risk. (Supplied: Lantana Removal Queensland)<\/p>\n

Australian Cattle Veterinarians executive committee representative Lachlan Strohfeldt said livestock unfamiliar with the plant were most at risk.<\/p>\n

“Cattle that graze areas containing lantana all the time develop an idea of what it is,” he said.<\/p>\n

“They’ll graze around it, and they won’t browse it.”<\/p>\n

He recommended excluding new livestock purchases from paddocks containing lantana and feeding them before they were turned out to that pasture.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Toxic lantana outcompetes native vegetation. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n

Don’t go in ‘gung-ho’<\/p>\n

Sunshine Coast Council’s conservation partnerships officer Nick Clancy is among those on the frontline anticipating the release of the lantana rust.<\/p>\n

“The more [tools] we have available, the better,” Mr Clancy said.<\/p>\n

\"Dead<\/p>\n

A lantana thicket killed with herbicides. (Supplied: Nick Clancy Sunshine Coast Council)<\/p>\n

He recommended a staged approach to removing lantana, rather than going in “gung-ho”.<\/p>\n

Mr Clancy said lantana thickets blocked koalas from moving across the ground at night.<\/p>\n

\"bird<\/p>\n

A mur’rindum bird (black-breasted button-quail) on K’gari (Fraser Island) in 2021.\u00a0 (Supplied: Patrick Webster)<\/p>\n

But some species, including the endangered black-breasted button-quail and vulnerable Richmond birdwing butterfly, had adapted to use lantana for habitat and food.<\/p>\n

“Long-term, sure, you want to control that weed and replace it with something more desirable,” Mr Clancy said.<\/p>\n

“But it might perform a function in the interim until you get to that point, so it’s about staging it.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The pigs weed the paddocks for free. (ABC Rural: Jennifer Nichols)<\/p>\n

Pig power<\/p>\n

On their farm at Amamoor, around 150km north-west of Brisbane, Mick and Kylie Carr have used pasture-raised pigs to help tackle their lantana load and regenerate their pasture.<\/p>\n

“It doesn’t seem to affect the pigs \u2026 and they do it for free,” Mr Carr said.<\/p>\n

“They push it over and root around and tear the lantana out. It really saves a lot of work for ourselves.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Under quarantine lockdown in Brisbane’s Ecosciences Precinct, an imported plant pathogen is being readied for release, its microscopic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770970,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,249575,366357,366359,72111,366356,366360,44,366358,366362,366361],"class_list":["post-770969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-biological-control","tag-ecosciences-precinct","tag-fungal-biocontrol","tag-lantana","tag-lantana-rust","tag-national-lantana-group","tag-news","tag-puccinia-lantanae","tag-weed-toxic-to-cattle","tag-weeds-australia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770969"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770969\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}