Invasiveness Assessment - Spanish heath (Erica lusitanica) 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 Spanish heath.
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: Spanish heath
Scientific name:Erica lusitanica
| Question | Comments | Rating | Confidence |
| Establishment | |||
| Germination requirements? | Germination can occur all year, but occurs most successfully in spring and autumn (Boersma 1996). | H | MH |
| Establishment requirements? | Can occur in forest (Carr, Yugovic and Robinson 1992). | MH | MH |
| How much disturbance is required? | Can invade heath (Carr, Yugovic and Robinson 1992). | H | MH |
| Growth/Competitive | |||
| Life form? | Small to medium shrub (Carr, Yugovic and Robinson 1992). | L | MH |
| Allelopathic properties? | Erica species have been identified as having allelopathic properties (Rice 1984). It has been suggested that leaf drop from this species may acidify the soil and therefore discourage the establishment of other species (Picart 1998) | ML | M |
| Tolerates herb pressure? | Unpalatable to stock (Mathers & Williams 1990). | MH | H |
| Normal growth rate? | Very competitive species able to completely dominate the lower stratums. Will regrow vigorously after damage, however growth can be slowed at colder temperatures (Muyt 2001). | H | MH |
| Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc? | Can regrow after damage from fire or frosts (Muyt 2001). Drought tolerant (Blood 2001). Present in damp heath and wetlands (Tolerant of waterlogging) (Picart 1998). | H | M |
| Reproduction | |||
| Reproductive system | Produces copious seed and roots readily sucker (Blood 2001). | H | MH |
| Number of propagules produced? | Plants can produce in the vicinity of 9 million seeds per annum (Muyt 2001). | H | MH |
| Propagule longevity? | A small proportion of seeds may be viable after 4 years (Buxton 1990). | L | MH |
| Reproductive period? | Takes 3-4 years to reach maturity but can live for over 40 years (Muyt 2001). | H | MH |
| Time to reproductive maturity? | Takes 3-4 years to reach sexual maturity (Muyt 2001). Roots sucker readily, therefore may reproduce earlier (Blood 2001). |  | MH |
| Dispersal | |||
| Number of mechanisms? | Very small seeds dispersed by wind, water and externally on animals (Blood 2001 and Weber 2003). | H | MH |
| How far do they disperse? | Very small seeds 0.4 mm length (Weber 2003). Wind can disperse small seeds distances greater than 1 km. | H | M |
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