What does it look like?
Velvetleaf is an annual plant that can grow 1-2.5 metres tall. It has large, heart-shaped leaves, which are soft and velvety to the touch with a musky odour. It has small yellow to yellow-orange flowers that open for a few hours during the hottest part of the day. The distinctive black seed pods each contain about 40 large, hard black seeds. It’s most likely to be found in arable crops.
Velvetleaf is native to India and China. In countries where it has been introduced, it’s found in wasteland, vacant lots, gardens and cultivated fields, especially maize and soy bean fields and along fence rows. It’s regarded as the worst cropping weed in the United States.
Why is it a problem?
The spreading canopy of velvetleaf competes with other plants for sunlight, water and nutrients. It also produces chemicals that inhibit seed germination and seedling root elongation of other plants.
Velvetleaf reproduces from seed, which is produced in large numbers and can survive for up to 50 years in soil. Seed germinates in large numbers in cultivated areas such as field crops, growing rapidly in the first few months.
Velvetleaf was accidentally imported into New Zealand with soybean seed, in fodder beet and as a contaminant of other grains. The seed can also be spread by farm machinery and as a contaminant in silage, straw and hay or in effluent from animals that have been grazing infested land.
Control methods
If you think you have found Velvetleaf, report it to our biosecurity team on 06 835 9200.
A Biosecurity Advisor will help you identify the plant and will carry out any control work necessary.
Related links
Notify Council
If you think you've found this pest, please get in touch with our Biosecurity Team at biosecurity@hbrc.govt.nz or call us on 0800 108 838.
Management Programme
National Pest Plant Accord
All plants on MPI's National Pest Plant Accord (NPPA) are unwanted organisms under the Biosecurity Act 1993 whose formal or casual trade contributes significantly to their spread.
Plants on the Accord cannot legally be propagated, distributed, or sold in New Zealand. If allowed to spread further, these pest plants could seriously damage our economy and environment.
Progressive Containment Programme
There are a number of pests that are well established in the Hawke’s Bay region but their present infestation levels are still low enough for those levels to be reduced region-wide through a progressive containment programme. Progressive Containment programmes have the less specific aim of reducing levels of infestation within their respective management zones. While the general intent is to reduce these infestations to zero-levels at some time into the future, the primary focus of a progressive containment programme is to preventing a pest from spreading. For well-established pests whose harmful effects and spread can still be reduced, progressive containment offers the best ratio of cost to benefits.
The goal is to maintain a pest population at the lowest feasible level and confine it to a particular area while reducing numbers over time. In some cases this will result in fewer sites infested or in others the overall density of the pest will reduce over a 10 year duration period. Containment programmes usually target habitats of high ecological value that require protection and restoration.
Unwanted Organism
An unwanted organism is any organism that's capable of causing harm to natural or physical resources (like forests and waterways) or human health. A number of introduced pests in New Zealand are classed as unwanted.
More informationRules
Plan Rule 5
Except where an occupier of land has entered into a Written Management Agreement approved by Hawke's Bay Regional Council, an occupier of land shall;
a) destroy all apple of Sodom, Australian sedge, cotton thistle, Darwin's barberry, nassella tussock, saffron thistle, velvetleaf, and woolly nightshade plants on their land
b) destroy all Japanise honeysuckle plants on their land within the defined containment area
c) destroy all old man's beard plants on their land within the Kaweka and Ruahine Ranges buffer area and containment area.
Taxonomies
FamilyMalvaceae
TypePlants
GroupGroundcover
HabitatLand
Management ProgrammeNational Pest Plant AccordProgressive Containment ProgrammeUnwanted Organism
RulesPlan Rule 5
