home   about   search

biodiversity explorer

the web of life in southern Africa

Hakea sericea (Needlebush, Silky hakea)

Life > eukaryotes > Archaeoplastida > Chloroplastida > Charophyta > Streptophytina > Plantae (land plants) > Tracheophyta (vascular plants) > Euphyllophyta > Lignophyta (woody plants) > Spermatophyta (seed plants) > Angiospermae (flowering plants) > Eudicotyledons > Order: Proteales > Family: Proteaceae > Genus: Hakea

Hakea sericea (Needlebush, Silky hakea)

Hakea sericea, Tsitsikamma National Park, Eastern Cape, South Africa. [photo H.G. Robertson, Iziko ©]
Hakea sericea (Needlebush, Silky hakea) Hakea sericea (Needlebush, Silky hakea)

The invasive alien Hakea sericea flowering in winter in fynbos in the Cape Peninsula mountains, Western Cape, South Africa. [photo Colin Paterson-Jones ©]

The invasive alien Hakea sericea flowering in fynbos in the Franschhoek Mountains, with a pine plantation and an escaped pine tree beyond, Western Cape, South Africa. [photo Colin Paterson-Jones ©]

Hakea sericea is a woody shrub or small tree that grows to 3-5 m in height. It is native to souteastern Australia and invasive in fynbos regions of the Western and Eastern Cape in South Africa.

Chronology of hakea control in South Africa

Date

Event
1858

First record of Hakea sericea in the Cape, where it was recorded from Cape Town.
1863 Hakea sericea recorded from Bathurst in the Eastern Cape where is was already well known.
1938 Proclaimed a noxious weed in terms of the Weed Act.
1960 Biological control of hakea proposed by F.J. Simmonds of the Commonwealth Institute of Biological Control
Feb 1961 Conference on hakea held in Stellenbosch where an interdisciplinary committee was formed to propose methods for controlling this weed. Biological control was considered at the conference as a possible control method.
Jul 1962 Biological control programme initiated for control of hakea in South Africa: D. van V. Webb sent to Australia to investigate insect species that feed on hakea and which might be suitable for importation as biological control agents.
Dec 1968 A biological control laboratory is set up in Stellenbosch.
1969-1980 Stocks of biological control insects brought in from Australia.
1970-1971 First release of seed-feeding weevil Erytenna consputa in Southwestern Cape. These particular weevils had been collected from Wilson's Promontory in Australia and performed poorly, possibly because of climatic reasons.
1970 First releases of the moth Carposina autologa at Wemmershoek in the Western Cape.
1974-1981 About 8000 Erytenna consputa weevils imported from Victoria and New South Wales. This weevil became established at a large number of sites in the southwestern and southern Cape.
1976 - 1979 19 376 ha of infested fynbos in the South-Western Cape cleared of hakea using the 'fell-and-burn' method.
1977 - 1983 More than 3000 Cydmaea binotata weevils imported from Australia.
1978 - 1982 Main period during which eggs of the moth Carposina autologa were imported from Australia into South Africa for the biocontrol of hakea.
1980 - 1984 Cydmaea binotata weevils at over 36 sites in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape but only became established at four sites.
1983 480 000 ha infested in what is now known as the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, South Africa, amounting to about 14% of the remaining mountain fynbos.
1983 -1986 Erytenna consputa weevils collected at established sites and re-distributed to other areas thus increasing the spread of this species.