Bridal creeper (Asparagus asparagoides) is a long-lived, highly invasive scrambling herb/vine from southern Africa and a Weed of National Significance in Australia. It smothers native vegetation, forms dense thickets, and develops extensive underground rhizomes and tubers that suppress other plants and reduce available soil moisture and nutrients. It spreads readily via birds and other animals that eat the berries and disperse viable seed, and can also spread when soil containing roots is moved.
Distribution records are indicative. Always confirm current status with your state biosecurity authority. Found in: native vegetation, orchards, roadsides, drains, sand dunes, coastal heath, mallee shrubland, eucalypt woodland, banksia woodland, pine plantations, drainage lines.
Control is challenging because plants regenerate from rhizomes and large underground tuber reserves, and new seedlings can emerge from the soil seed bank after mature plants are removed. Preventing spread by animals is difficult, so reducing seed production is a key objective. Long-term, integrated management with repeated control actions and monitoring over multiple years is often needed to address regrowth and new incursions.
Hand pull seedlings and dig out small plants where practical, ensuring rhizomes are removed from the soil so plants do not regrow.
Avoid slashing fruiting plants and collect fruit (including green fruit) during control work so it cannot ripen and set seed after cutting.
Inspect infestations regularly over several years and control any regrowth or new seedlings promptly using suitable methods for the site.
Seeds are spread by birds and other animals that eat fruit, and infestations can also spread when soil containing roots is moved or when root-containing garden waste is dumped.
Regrowth can occur from rhizome remnants and seedlings can emerge from the soil seed bank, so infestations often require repeated control actions and long-term monitoring.
Dense above-ground growth smothers other plants and underground tuber mats impede root growth of other plants, reduce soil moisture, and prevent seedling establishment, threatening native vegetation and biodiversity.
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