Invasiveness Assessment - Cherry laurel (Prunus laurocerasus) in Victoria
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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 Cherry laurel.
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)
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Common Name: Cherry laurel
Scientific name: Prunus laurocerasus
| Question | Comments | Rating | Confidence |
| Establishment | |||
| Germination requirements? | Seed germinates in spring after a period of cold stratification (Blood 2001). | MH | MH |
| Establishment requirements? | Seed can germinate in dense shade (Blood 2001). As the species is also reported to invade disturbed sites such as roadsides and waste areas, it is thought that the species can establish with out additional factors (Webb, Sykes & Garnock-Jones 1988). | H | MH |
| How much disturbance is required? | The species can “invade relatively undisturbed vegetation” including wet sclerophyll forest and riparian vegetation (Blood 2001). | MH | MH |
| Growth/Competitive | |||
| Life form? | Other. Tree or shrub (Blood 2001). | L | MH |
| Allelopathic properties? | Unknown. | M | L |
| Tolerates herb pressure? | Reported to be unpalatable and toxic to stock species and not preferred by them (Connor 1977). The species has very few insect pests in Britain where it was introduced in 1576 (Leather 1985). There has been an anecdotal report that cultivated plants of this species have been completely stripped by deer (Dave’s Garden 2007). | MH | MH |
| Normal growth rate? | Reported to have a moderate growth rate (PFAF 2007). As a seedling the species’ growth rate has been found to be only marginally faster than Ilex aquifolium (Cornelissen, Carnelli & Callachan 1999). The species is therefore considered to have a growth rate equal to that of the tree/shrub species. | M | MH |
| Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc? | Can be killed by fire and can resprout after fire (Blood 2001). Susceptible to drought (Nardini, Tyree & Salleo 2001). There is some conflicting evidence on frost tolerance; Blood (2001) reports the species to be frost tender, while PFAF (2007) report it to be hardy to zone 7. Reported to not be tolerant of maritime exposure (PFAF 2007). This may indicate a susceptibility to salinity. | M | MH |
| Reproduction | |||
| Reproductive system | Primarily reproduces by seed; however it is reported to be capable of vegetative reproduction as lower branches can tip root if in contact with the soil (Blood 2001). | H | MH |
| Number of propagules produced? | Each fruit only contains one seed (Weber 2003). Blood (2001) reports that the species produces numerous flowers, it is unknown however what a plants potential yield is. | M | L |
| Propagule longevity? | Unknown. | M | L |
| Reproductive period? | Reported to be long-lived (Blood 2001). Reported to be able to form pure stands (Weber 2003). It is therefore thought likely that the species has a reproductive period greater than ten years or that is can form self-persisting monocultures. | H | MH |
| Time to reproductive maturity? | Unknown; being a shrub/tree it is likely to take 2-3 years to mature. | M | L |
| Dispersal | |||
| Number of mechanisms? | Spread internally by birds and animals (Blood 2001). | H | MH |
| How far do they disperse? | The fruit is eaten by blackbirds, however as their gape size is smaller than the species seed it is likely only to carry to cover and have an approximate dispersal distance of 100 m (Blood 2001; Debussche & Isenmann 1989; Spennemann & Allen 2000). The dispersal distance for this species has not been reported, however as the plant produces medium sized fruits (10-12 mm) it may be dispersed by species such as currawongs and foxes which can disperse seeds more than 1 km (Spennemann & Allen 2000). | H | M |
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