Invasiveness assessment - Cretain trefoil (Lotus creticus) 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 Cretain trefoil.

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 - 1026 KB)
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Common Name: Cretain trefoil
Scientific name: Lotus creticus

Question	Comments	Rating	Confidence
Establishment
Germination requirements?	Unknown.	M	L
Establishment requirements?	The species is only reported to occur in open areas, of beach and dune systems and arid pasture (Willmer 1986; Snowball 2002). Therefore the species is presumed to require open space for establishment.	ML	M
How much disturbance is required?	Reported to occur as a composition of pasture in arid areas (Mokhtar et al 2006; Snowball 2002). The species is native to coastal areas of the Mediterranean (Martinez et al 2000).	ML	H
Growth/Competitive
Life form?	Perennial legume (Vignolio et al 2002).	MH	H
Allelopathic properties?	Unknown	M	L
Tolerates herb pressure?	Reported to act as fodder for sheep in Israel (Tsuriell 1977). The species has importance in pastoral systems in Tunisia (Mokhtar et al 2006). Reported present in an area of pressure exposed to high grazing pressure (Snowball 2002). Therefore it is presumed to be capable of recovering from moderate grazing.	MH	H
Normal growth rate?	The species is reported to be a small shrub with a fast growth rate (Martinez et al 2000). Therefore he species is considered to have a growth rate equal to that of species with the same life form.	M	H
Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc?	Shown to have adaptation to drought conditions (Savé, Biel & de Herralde 2000). Tolerant of saline conditions (Sánchez-Blanco et al 1998). Reported not to be adapted to waterlogged conditions (Real et al 2006).	MH	H
Reproduction
Reproductive system	The species reproduces sexually producing seed through insect pollinated flowers (Tsuriell 1977; Willmer 1986).	ML	H
Number of propagules produced?	Unknown	M	L
Propagule longevity?	Unknown	M	L
Reproductive period?	Unknown	M	L
Time to reproductive maturity?	Unknown	M	l
Dispersal
Number of mechanisms?	The species seeds are dispersed by wind (Tsuriell 1977).	MH	H
How far do they disperse?	Unknown	M	L

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