News | Sunday, 17 January 2010

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Invasive plant finds new home on Maltese roundabouts

After EU funded its eradication on the island of Minorca, Environment Landscape Consortium plants the Cape Fig on the Luqa roundabout

James Debono
Carpobrotus edulis, an invasive plant known as the Cape or Hottentot Fig, is being planted on traffic roundabouts by the Environment Landscapes Consortium (ELC) after it was successfully eliminated from the Spanish island of Minorca through an EU-funded project.
Carpobrotus is an aggressive species that climbs over other plants and kills them, and is credited with wiping out 80% of Minorca’s endemic species, according to Natura 2000, the official newsletter of the European Commission’s directorate general for the environment.
The species currently embellishes the Manuel Dimech Bridge project and the airport roundabout.
In 2001, the European Commission approved funding for the conservation of areas with threatened flora in Minorca, with most of the money going towards the eradication of the cape fig. Dedicated staff and volunteers, including rock climbers, were engaged in removing this plant by hand, which is considered the most effective way of eliminating the pest.
“Whilst different regions of Europe are coming to grips with the Hottentot Fig and applying for European funds to eradicate it, locally we seem to be oblivious to such threats and ensue with unilateral actions taken by individual entities,” biologist Alan Deidun told MaltaToday.
The risks posed by Carpobrotus edulis are well known to the Maltese authorities. In fact, the plant was eradicated from Ramla il-Hamra in 2001 by the former Environment Protection Department – using manual methods.
But contacted by MaltaToday, the ELC strongly denied that the plant posed any threat to Maltese biodiversity, insisting that when these plants are used in controlled landscapes they are never invasive.
“On the contrary, by planting this plant we will indeed be encouraging wildlife to thrive while giving ourselves a greener landscape to be enjoyed by all,” Andrew Aspinall, manager at the ELC’s Wied Incita nursery, claimed.
He also claims the plant is used for landscaping in Italy, France, Greece and other Mediterranean countries.
Aspinal pointed out that Carpobrutus edulis was not introduced into Malta by ELC. “It has been in existence here for many decades, whilst its closely-related cousin Mesembryanthemum, with longer ‘fingers’ commonly known as ‘ladies’s fingers’, has only proved to be invasive when left on its own accord, as in Qui-Si-Sana.”
But Deidun disputes the ELC’s claims that the plant poses no danger in a controlled environment. “Landscape contractors strive to give the impression that they can exert control over the spread of alien species, even if these happen to be invasive ones. But this is not the case”.
Deidun claims that despite being planted in roundabouts, the plant still manages to spread, carpeting whole swathes along cliff areas, especially in the southwest of the islands, which generally tend to harbour species of conservation importance.
Deidun insists that it is impossible to speak of “controlled environments” for plant species which can spread relatively easily.
On his part, Aspinall described the plant as “one of few that can offer constant greenery with a truly beautiful flower which is produced annually.”
But these attributes do not impress Deidun: “Greenery and showy flowers cannot compensate to the implicit threat to biodiversity that such invasive exotics constitute”.
The ELC nursery manager said the plant is very well adopted to the Maltese climate, being extremely wind and fire-resistant, with the ability to take saline water.
And yet again, it this plant’s versatility that makes it more dangerous to Deidun.
“Species introduced from South Africa are of major concern since they adapted to a Mediterranean-type of climate, and hence can spread more easily in our country.”

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