Invasive Cape tulip weed found in Waitaha Canterbury

Gardeners and landowners are urged to be on the lookout for the invasive Cape tulip weed, which has been found in Waitaha Canterbury.

Despite its appearance with its pretty flowers, Cape tulip is a toxic, non-native plant, and dangerous to both humans and livestock. Every part of this plant contains poisonous compounds. Symptoms of Cape tulip poisoning include gastroenteritis, thirst, paralysis, blindness, and heart and kidney failure.

Cape tulip is both a Notifiable Organism and an Unwanted Organism under the Biosecurity Act 1993 and is banned from sale, propagation, and distribution.

It is being eradicated under the National Interest Pest Responses programme, led and funded by Biosecurity New Zealand in partnership with regional councils and the Department of Conservation.

It spreads by producing multiple corms (similar to bulbs), which can remain dormant for several years, and by seed, with a single plant capable of producing up to 6,000 seeds.

Cape tulip is known to be found in gardens. It can also appear in pasture, often after escaping from a nearby garden. Its establishment in agricultural areas could have serious economic impacts.

In winter, each plant produces a single, long, strap-like leaf (about 90 cm) from a corm. The corms can cluster together, giving the appearance of multiple leaves, but a closer look reveals only a single leaf with a yellow base emerging from each corm.

The plant can flower between June and December. The flowers are typically salmon-pink, with a deeper-coloured band near the base of the petals, and sometimes have a yellow centre.

Cape tulip has spread widely through New Zealand before. Over 500 sites have been confirmed since the early 1980s, with more than 230 of these sites located in the Canterbury region, mostly in home gardens. Eradication from individual sites has been very successful, and now only 30 known Cape tulip sites remain, with four of these in Canterbury.

If you think you have found Cape tulip, please call Biosecurity New Zealand’s Exotic Pest and Disease freephone 0800 80 99 66 who will take care of it. Please don’t touch the plants or dig them up.