Tuesday 9th December 2014
BY TASHNY SUKUMARAN |
| Deadly bloom: The dangerous weed with flowers growing wildly in Sidam, Kulim. |
SUNGAI PETANI: It has been dubbed
the “worst weed of the century”, destroying native flora and crops, causing
rashes that can leave humans permanently scarred and damaging the intestines of
animals that eat it.
Called Parthenium
hysterophorus, it was first detected here in September last year in
Ulu Yam, Selangor.
But the
highly-allergenic plant has since been spotted in Perak, Kedah and Negri
Sembilan, raising fears that it has spread throughout the country.
Initial
accounts show that the plant has even resisted attempts to control it through
weedkillers.
A species
of flowering plant native to Mexico, it can cause severe skin disease and
hayfever in humans.
It is
also toxic to livestock such as goats and cows, causing fevers, ulcers,
anorexia and intestinal damage, and can quickly replace native flora by
releasing toxic substances, causing massive crop loss.
Similar
in appearance to ulam raja, P.
hysterophorus is
classified as a dangerous pest under the Plant Quarantine Regulations 1981 and
can quickly propagate.
According
to Professor Dr S. M. Rezaul Karim of Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, this is
because one plant, which can reach several feet in height, can produce hundreds
of thousands of seeds during its four-week life cycle.
“The
seeds can be dormant in the ground for up to 10 years, making it impossible to
get rid of.”
In Sg
Petani, some areas had been sprayed with herbicide, only to see fresh plants
springing anew just days later.
“The weed
spreads like wildfire. You can look at examples in other countries, such as
Australia which spends millions of dollars yearly trying to control it,” said
Dr Karim, who heads the university’s parthenium weed research group.
According
to Dr Karim, P. hysterophorus not only competes with other plants
for nutrients – it also releases chemicals which damage other plants.
Its
effect on people, he said, was particularly worrying as it often grows by the
roadside where the public can easily come into contact with it.
“We need
to find out how many communities in Malaysia have been affected,” he said.
“In some
nations, the rash can become so bad it leaves people permanently scarred. It
can take three months for the symptoms to subside,” he said.
Checks by The
Star during a recent
field trip to Sungai Petani saw the weed growing as high as 1.2m (4 ft) in
close proximity to restaurants, paddy fields, businesses and irrigation drains
that allow the seeds to hitch a ride to other areas, thus propagating its
spread.
According
to DOA representatives, the area had been sprayed several times with weedkiller
to no avail.
In a
media release, the DOA listed several methods of controlling the weed,
including destroying the weed in its early stages before it flowers and
produces seeds, and curbing it in residential areas using salt water in a 1:4
ratio of salt to water.
The
department believes that the weed arrived in Malaysia by way of seeds being
carried through imported machinery or in fertiliser.
Among the
known affected areas are Kinta, Hulu Perak, Selama, Perak Tengah, Manjung,
Kuala Kangsar, Pokok Sena, Hulu Selangor, Kuala Muda, Kota Setar, Seremban and
Kuala Pilah.
The DOA’s
Plant Biosecurity Division has formed a technical committee on the control,
containment and removal of P. hysterophorus that will come up with a standard
containment operating procedure and work with state governments to identify and
monitor problem areas as well as destroying existing weeds.
State
agricultural officers have been briefed on how to deal with the problem while
an exercise to identify places where the weed grows is already underway.
No comments:
Post a Comment