Pest plant - Cutleaf mignonette
- Fact sheet
- August 2015
Cutleaf mignonette (Reseda lutea) can significantly reduce cereal crop yields, and taint milk and meat products. It is drought tolerant and occurs in association with calcareous soils.
Description
- erect perennial herb up to 1m high
- leaves are 20-60mm long, with narrow pointed lobes
- flowers are greenish-yellow and numerous, appearing along an upright stem
- oblong angular pods approximately 10mm long, with many black, smooth, shiny seeds
- extensive succulent roots are able to regenerate from fragments when spread by cultivation.
Why is it a problem?
- competes with cereal crops and can severely reduce yields
- difficult to remove from contaminated grain
- hazard to lupin and cucurbit crops – it acts as an alternative host of the watermelon mosaic virus and the cucumber mosaic virus
- unpalatable and can taint dairy produce and meat when no other feed is available.
Distribution
- Yorke Peninsula
- Scattered isolated infestations throughout the Murraylands and Riverland region.
Ecology
- flowers from October to mid-summer
- prevalent in areas of the State that receive between 225-625mm of rain annually
- occurs on calcareous or alkaline soils ranging from deep sands to mallee clay loams.
How it spreads
- by stock, contaminated produce and vehicles
- localised spread may occur when root fragments are moved during cultivation.