Woodlands Historic Park
Chilean Needle Grass (Nassella neesiana)

Biological Control

Research in Argentina found one suitable candidate for biological control of Chilean Needle Grass, the rust fungus Uromyces pencanus. Testing of a single strain of the fungus found it was effective against 7 out of 9 populations of Chilean Needle Grass from Australia, plants from Ballarat being one of the exceptions. A lower level of infection occurred in two Australian species of Spear Grass, neither of which occur in the Melbourne area (Anderson et al 2012).

The rust was approved for release in New Zealand in June 2011, however as of December 2015 no release had taken place. In Australia further tests are considered necessary on the two infected Austrostipa species and also on Australian wheat varieties which were unable to be tested in Argentina (D. McLaren pers. comm.). Nobody is likely to stump up the money for this unless positive results are seen from a release in New Zealand.