PHOTO: The spikes from Hudson Pear can cause serious damages to native plant, animals, humans and car tyres.
A NEW $2.6 million program was announced in Lightning Ridge on Monday 12 December towards getting on top of rapidly- growing infestations of Hudson Pear within the region.
The Hudson Pear is a major invasive plant that is green in colour and filled with hundreds, if not thousands of long spines. Its prickles can cause serious damage, harming native plants and animals, while its spikes can pierce footwear and tyres.
Hudson Pear was first located in Lightning Ridge in the late 1960’s.
It is believed to have been spread from a cactus nursery at Grawin, with some reports that its rapid spread was aided by opal miners who deliberately used the plants to protect their diggings from nocturnal thieves. The weed has since been located in Coonamble, Walgett, Grawin, Cumborah, Glengarry and parts of South and Western Australia…