A new campaign has been launched to renew the fight against the spread of invasive pond plants across the UK.
All Choked Up! Prevent Pond Pests is a campaign run by The Water for Wildlife project. Awareness raising postcards are being distributed to aquatic pond plant suppliers and consumers to raise awareness of the dangers posed to natural water bodies by plants like Australian swamp stonecrop (
crassula helmsii), water fern (
azolla filculoides), floating pennywort (
hydroctyle ranunculoides), parrot's feather (
myriophyllum aquaticum), curly water weed (
lagarosiphon major) and water primrose (
ludwigian grandiflora syn. jussiaea).
Any of these plants which are used in garden ponds can, through carelessness or via natural agents (like birds), find their way into our natural water systems. Chris Rostron is the Wildlife Trusts' Water for Wildlife manager. He points out that even fragments of these plants contaminating other plants bought from aquatic plant centres can reproduce and pose a threat to our natural water systems. The postcard includes information on identifying and dealing with the problem species. It can be downloaded from the
Wildlife Trusts website.
