Native Plant Species at Risk from Bitou Bush Invasion
The threat posed by the South African native coastal shrub bitou bush (Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. rotundata) to Australian native plant communities has long been acknowledged. In addition, bitou bush has expanded its distribution rapidly in the last few decades; now occupying over 80% of the New South Wales coastline. The culmination of these factors saw bitou bush and the other introduced subspecies boneseed ( Chrysanthemoides monilifera subsp. monilifera) listed collectively as a Key Threatening Process under the NSW Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995 (TSC Act), and later under the Australian Government’s Weeds of National Significance initiative.