What is it about?
Disturbed rainforest in their phase of recovery are likely to be susceptible to biological invasion. In the upland tropical rainforests of northeast Australia, we found that the Strawberry Guava (Psidium cattleianum) had invaded many patches of rainforests at varying stages of recovery.
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Why is it important?
Strawberry guava is already considered a very serious weed in certain places such as Hawaii, and now could seriously impact the World Heritage rainforests of the Wet Tropics in northeast Australia. Understand their ecology is crucial.
Perspectives
Having worked with the Strawberry Guava, I (David Tng, lead author of the paper) find the species to have very little natural enemies in the field. They do not seem susceptible to Myrtle Rust, a exotic disease that is affecting other native trees and shrubs of the Myrtaceae. They also seem resistant to herbivores. And they coppice easily, and fruit copiously. They also survive and persist under shade. All these attributes, taken together, seems to be the makings of a superweed.
Dr David YP Tng
School for Field Studies
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Characteristics of the P
sidium cattleianum
invasion of secondary rainforests, October 2015, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/aec.12319.
You can read the full text:
Resources
How to be a superweed
This blogpost talks about why the biological characteristics that leads me to think of the strawberry guava as a superweed.
Invader from the dark side
A peer-reviewed blurp (a Hot Topic article) on the Ecological Societ of Australia website describing the severity of the Strawberry Guava invasion problem in north Queensland.
Disastrous yet delicious wee threateneds wet tropics rainforests
A news article on the Strawberry guava in the Cairns Post (9 Oct 2015)
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