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Invasiveness Assessment - Wild mignonette (Reseda luteola) in Victoria (Nox)

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Plant invasiveness is determined by evaluating a plant’s biological and ecological characteristics against criteria that encompass establishment requirements, growth rate and competitive ability, methods of reproduction, and dispersal mechanisms.

Each characteristic, or criterion, is assessed against a list of intensity ratings. Depending upon information found, a rating of Low, Medium Low, Medium High or High is assigned to that criterion. Where no data is available to answer a criterion, a rating of medium (M) is applied. A description of the invasiveness criteria and intensity ratings used in this process can be viewed here.

The following table provides information on the invasiveness of Wild mignonette.

A more detailed description of the methodology of the Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method can be viewed below:

Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method (PDF - 630 KB)
Victorian Weed Risk Assessment (WRA) method (DOC - 1 MB)
To view the information PDF requires the use of a PDF reader. This can be installed for free from the Adobe website (external link).

Common Name: Wild mignonette
Scientific name: Reseda luteola

Question
Comments
Reference
Rating
Establishment
Germination requirements?Seeds germinate in autumn.
P & C (1992)
MH
Establishment requirements?Establishes in ‘open’ habitats (e.g. roadsides, fields and gardens).
P & C (1992)
Tutin et al (91964)
ML
How much disturbance is required?Establishes in vigorously growing crops (e.g. carrots) and pastures.
P & C (1992)
MH
Growth/Competitive
Life form?Erect annual or biennial herb.

Other.
P & C (1992)
L
Allelopathic properties?None described.
L
Tolerates herb pressure?Is grazed but assumed to recover quickly as “slashing or mowing…removes the top growth but stimulates new flowering stems from basal buds”.
P & C (1992)
MH
Normal growth rate?“Once established (it) competes with pastures and crops but is rarely considered an important weed”.
P & C (1992)
MH
Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc?Assumed tolerant of frost (occurs in southern Tasmania and Great Britain and Ireland), drought (occurs in arid areas of Australia and New South Wales and Western Australia).
P & C (1992)
ML
Reproduction
Reproductive systemReproducing by seed.
P & C (1992)
ML/L
Number of propagules produced? 15 spike like clusters per plant x 70 flowers per cluster x 2 seeds per flower = 2,000 seeds per plant.
(Estimate using illustrations).
P & C (1992)
H
Propagule longevity?“Seeds of Resed aceae do not remain viable for more than 3-4 years and there is no evidence for seed longevity > 4 years in this family”.
Heaps et al (1995)
L
Reproductive period?Annual/biennial one year.
P & C (1992)
ML
Time to reproductive maturity?Annual/biennial one year.
P & C (1992)
H
Dispersal
Number of mechanisms?Seeds contaminate agricultural produce, vehicles, machinery, animals, fodder, mud, etc, but, most spread in water and road making materials.
P & C (1992)
MH
How far do they disperse?Seeds small (1 mm diameter) therefore could be transported > 200 m.
MH


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