Invasive pasture grasses in northern Australia - Para grass

THREAT ABATEMENT ADVICE FOR A KEY THREATENING PROCESS

This material has been developed based on the best available information at the time of development (September 2014).

To provide information updates please email: weeds@environment.gov.au

Para grass (Urochloa mutica)

Para grass was introduced to Queensland in 1884 to control riverbank erosion. In the 1880s it was growing in the Darwin Botanical Garden and was introduced to Arnhem Land in 1922. It has since been widely used as a pasture grass in northern Australia, including on ponded pastures in Queensland. Para grass is naturalised in Queensland, northern New South Wales, the Northern Territory and in the northern part of Western Australia. Para grass poses a major threat to the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park, where it is actively managed.

Para grass under state and territory legislation

Para grass (Urochloa mutica) is not a declared weed under any legislation in Australia. Para grass is listed as a weed in at least 34 countries and recognised as a serious problem in Fiji, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Columbia, Hawaii, Jamaica, Malaysia, Peru, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Trinidad.

Priority actions/research (recent or underway)

Seed banks of weed-invaded wetlands: implications for biodiversity and restoration (Wearne L, Nicholas M, Perkins G, Australian Weeds Research Centre, 2011)
This project examines the impact of para grass on wetlands and the potential for recovery following its removal. The study concludes that the use of fire and grazing for the removal of para grass has resulted in a viable seed bank dominated by native species. In areas where para grass has been removed, species richness in the soil seed bank increases.

Using Fire to Restore Australian Wetlands from Invasive Grasses (Grice A, Nicholas M, 2011)
This project demonstrated that fire can be used as a reliable tool for reducing the prevalence of para grass in northern Australian wetlands.

Managing threats to floodplain biodiversity and Indigenous values (Setterfield S, Douglas M, Bayliss P, Jackson S, National Environmental Research Program (NERP) North Australia Hub, 2014). The NERP North Australia Hub continues to work with Northern Territory and Queensland government agencies to improve our understanding of the distribution, impacts and management of the five grasses. This project aims to improve the understanding of the spread of para grass and olive hymenachne in the tropical floodplains, and how spread patterns are related to hydrological regime, fire, and edaphic factors. The project will deliver maps of distribution of these weeds in Kakadu, models of areas of habitat suitable for invasion and predicted patterns of spread. It will also develop an improved decision-support tool to guide the implementation of cost-effective strategies to control aquatic invasive grasses.

Resources

PARA GRASS PLANS AND GUIDES
Title or description Author Date Details

Threat abatement plan to reduce the impacts on northern Australia’s biodiversity by the five listed grasses

Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

2012

Priority actions to manage the five species of invasive grasses

Background: Threat abatement plan to reduce the impacts on northern Australia's biodiversity by the five listed grasses

Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

2012

Information on each of the five species of invasive grasses

Fisheries guidelines for managing ponded pastures

Challen S and Long P

2004

Queensland Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries
PARA GRASS RESEARCH
Title or description Author Date Details

Balancing wildlife conservation and pastoralism: An adaptive management case study on multiple land use, from Northern Australia’s Mary River Region

Beggs K, Ferdinands K, Whitehead P and Woinarski J

2003

Proceedings of the 3rd International Wildlife Management Congress, Christchurch, New Zealand

Ponded pastures: A threat to wetland biodiversity

Clarkson J

1995

Finlayson CM (ed), Wetland research in the wet-dry tropics of Australia, Supervising Scientist Report 101, Supervising Scientist, Canberra, pp. 206–211

Effects of para grass (Urochloa mutica (Forssk.) T.Q. Nguyen) invasion on terrestrial invertebrates of a tropical floodplain

Douglas MM and O’Connor RA

2004

Sindel BM and Johnson SB (eds), Proceedings of the 14th Australian Weeds Conference, Wagga Wagga, NSW, pp. 153–156

Weed invasion changes fuel characteristics: para grass (Urochloa mutica (Forssk.) T.Q. Nguyen) on a tropical floodplain

Douglas MM and O’Connor RA

2004

Ecological Management and Restoration, vol. 5, pp. 143–145

Assessing the threat posed by an invasive African grass Urochloa mutica to biodiversity conservation in the Mary River Wetlands, Northern Territory

Ferdinands  K

2007

Institute of Advanced Studies, Charles Darwin University, Darwin (PhD thesis)

Biodiversity and invasive grass species: multiple use or monoculture?

Ferdinands K, Beggs K and Whitehead P

2005

Wildlife Research, vol. 32, pp. 447–457

Controlling para grass in a tropical seasonal wetland

Gould SF

2001

Ecological Management and Restoration, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 145–161

Pest or pasture? Introduced pasture grasses in the Northern Territory

Grace BS, Gardener MR and Cameron AG

2004

Sindel BM and Johnson SB (eds), Proceedings of the 14th Australian Weeds Conference, Wagga Wagga, NSW, pp. 157–160

Weed management in Kakadu National Park

Hunter F, Ibbett M and Salau B

2010

Winderlich S (ed), Kakadu National Park Landscape Symposia Series 2007–2009, Symposium 2: Weeds management

Grassland community dynamics of a freshwater tropical floodplain: Invasion of Brachiaria mutica (Para grass) on the Magela floodplain, Kakadu National Park

Knerr, NJA

1996

Department of Botany, University of New England, Armidale (thesis)

Tropical pasture plants as weeds

Low T

1997

Tropical Grasslands, vol. 31, pp. 337–343

Cattle grazing for Para Grass management in a mixed species wetland of north-eastern Australia

Williams PR, Collins EM and Grice AC

2005

Ecological Management and Restoration, vol. 6; no. 1; pp 75–78

Weeds of Protected Areas: Floodplain weeds in Australia’s Kakadu National Park

Setterfield SA, Douglas MM, Petty AM, Bayliss P, Ferdinands KB and Winderlich S

2013

Foxcroft LC, Richardson DM, Pyšek P and Genovesi P (eds.), Plant invasions in protected areas: patterns, problems and challenges, Springer, ISBN 978-94-007-7750-7

Weed Management and the Biodiversity and Ecological Processes of Tropical Wetlands

Douglas MM, Bunn SE, Pidgeon RJW, Davies PM, Barrow P, O’Connor RA and Winning M

2001

Environment Australia and Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation

Para grass management and costing trial within Kakadu National Park

McMaster D, Adams V, Setterfield SA, McIntyre D and Douglas MM

2014

19th Australasian Weed Conference, Hobart, September 2014
PARA GRASS WEB RESOURCES
Title or description Author Date Details

Further information about the biology, distribution and impacts of para grass

Australian Government Department of the Environment

2013

Weeds in Australia website

Para grass weed note

Northern Territory Government Department of Land Resource Management

 

 

Para grass photo identification table

Northern Territory Government Department of Land Resource Management

2012

 

Invasive species risk assessment: Para grass Urochloa mutica

Hannan-Jones  M and Csurhes S, Biosecurity Queensland

Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry

2012

 

Managing weeds for wildlife conservation

Northern Land Manager

 

 

Links to Ramsar sites, directory of important wetlands in Australia, communications materials and other valuable wetlands information

Australian Government Department of the Environment

 

Wetlands web pages

Map and description of Ramsar sites in Australia

Australian Government Department of the Environment

 

Australian Wetlands Database

Wise use of wetlands in Australia

Australian Government Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

2012

Fact sheet