Invasiveness Assessment - Rosewood (Tipuana tipu) 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 Rosewood.

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: Rosewood
Scientific name: Tipuana tipu

Question	Comments	Rating	Confidence
Establishment
Germination requirements?	Seed germinates April-Aug (from growth calendar). Germination is highest in winter, when ample water is available (CRC Weed Management, 2003). Propagation by scarified seed (Bodkin, 1990). Fresh scarified seed in Spring (Page & Olds, 1998). Despite inconsistencies in the data, all suggest that adequate, but seasonal, rainfall and temperature is required to break a dormancy imposed by the seed coating.	MH	M
Establishment requirements?	Pioneer species, dominating early forest successional stages (Grau et al., 1996). Open, sunny position (Bodkin, 1990). Requires access to direct light to establish.	ML	M
How much disturbance is required?	Invades disturbed sites such as roadsides and creekbanks, and also grows in woodland and open grassland areas where grazing is absent. Able to spread rapidly into woodlands, firebreaks, tracks, roadsides and other open areas (CRC Weed Management, 2003). Able to establish in natural ecosystems that are relatively intact or have only minor disturbance.	MH	M
Growth/Competitive
Life form?	Family Fabaceae (Cruz et. al., 2002)– leguminous plant.	MH	MH
Allelopathic properties?	None recorded in CRC Weed Management (2003).	L	M
Tolerates herb pressure?	In Bolivia…considered the most important fodder species…regrows well after grazing (Cruz et. al., 2002). Cattle will eat new growth and thus kill rosewood seedlings (CRC Weed Management, 2003). Mature trees will be able to continue reproducing under herbivory pressure, as tree can reach heights variously reported from 10 m to 30 m (beyond the reach of stock) and seed is wind-dispersed (CRC Weed Management, 2003), with the potential to germinate beyond the fenceline.	ML	MH
Normal growth rate?	Fast growth rate (Cruz et. al., 2002). Up to 4 m in first two years of growth (CRC Weed Management, 2003).	H	MH
Stress tolerance to frost, drought, w/logg, sal. etc?	Drought resistant, tolerates temperatures below 0°C and survives very high levels of salinity (Cruz et. al., 2002). This contrasts with findings by Dunn et al. (1994) that T. tipu has poor survival in saline soils. This tree probably has some tolerance to salt, but could not be considered highly salt tolerant. Drought and frost tender when young (Bodkin, 1990). Will survive in temperatures down to minus 6.5°c (CRC Weed Management, 2003), which may refer to mature trees. The susceptibility of young trees to drought and frost puts this species in the lowest threat category.	L	M
Reproduction
Reproductive system	Flowers bisexual. Pollinated by bees (Cruz et. al., 2002). Sexual reproduction only. Will tend towards the medium value in the absence of more specific data.	ML	L
Number of propagules produced?	Ability to produce many seeds and achieve high germination rates…up to 10 000 seeds per plant (CRC Weed Management, 2003).	H	M
Propagule longevity?	Orthodox seed. If stored at low moisture content at low temperatures, they can retain full viability for several years (Cruz et. al., 2002). Presume less than 5 years.	L	MH
Reproductive period?	A pioneer species, still present in secondary forests 20-50 years old (Grau et al., 1996). This indicates that the trees live for at least 20 years, producing seed from the age of 8-10 years (see Q 13 below).	H	H
Time to reproductive maturity?	Trees normally start to set fruit when they are 8-10 years old (Cruz et. al., 2002).	L	MH
Dispersal
Number of mechanisms?	Winged pod (samara) (Cruz et. al., 2002). Wind and water (when near waterways). Does not spread vegetatively (CRC Weed Management, 2003).	MH	M
How far do they disperse?	Depending on wind velocity and distance above the ground, rosewood seeds can be carried considerable distances away from the parent plant (CRC Weed Management, 2003). Water dispersal (see Q. 14) may sometimes carry them further. Most propagules will disperse 0-200 m, very few will disperse to 1 km.	ML	M

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