Many native plants can appear to be very similar to introduced weed species. While carrying out bushland regeneration or general weeding, many indigenous species can be wrongly identified as weeds and removed. This may be due to similarities in leaf shape, flower colour, growth habits or fruit types.
If in doubt, don’t pull it out!
On this page, images have colour coded borders to help illustrate which plants are friends, and which are foes: red indicates the weed species, green indicates the indigenous species.
Simply click on the weed species to reveal the common lookalike indigenous species. Some weed species have more than one lookalike.
Friend or Foe?
Acacia longifolia subsp. longifolia – Sallow Wattle
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Bushy shrub to small tree to 10m tall.
- Leaves: Phyllodes alternate, long, narrow, and mid to dark green. 2 prominent longitude veins (to 20cm).
- Flowers: (July -Spring) clustered in cylindrical yellow spikes, usually paired in leaf axils (to 3.5cm)
- Fruit: More or less straight cylindrical pod to 15cm
Field Notes:
Leaves (phyllodes) often arranges fairly uniformly up the stem, thin and narrow. Flowers in rods not balls. Seed pods typically straighter.
Not to be confused with….
Acacia melanoxylon – Blackwood
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Small to large tree 6-30m tall.
- Leaves: Phyllodes dull green- alternate, clustered near ends of branches, smooth, edges wavy, with 3-5 raised longitude veins. Thick and leathery (3-8cm).
- Flowers: (July- Spring), clustered cream ball-shaped flowerheads arranged in short racemes.
- Fruit: Dark brown pods becoming twisted with age (4-15cm)
Field Notes:
Leaves (phllyodes) looking messy as opposed to uniform, 3-5 veins. Flowers creamy clustered ball-shaped. Trunk dark brown and rough-barked.
Acacia longifolia subsp. longifolia – Sallow Wattle
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Bushy shrub to small tree to 10m tall.
- Leaves: Phyllodes alternate, long, narrow, and mid to dark green. 2 prominent longitude veins (to 20cm).
- Flowers: (July -Spring) clustered in cylindrical yellow spikes, usually paired in leaf axils (to 3.5cm)
- Fruit: More or less straight cylindrical pod to 15cm
Field Notes:
Leaves (phyllodes) often arranges fairly uniformly up the stem, thin and narrow. Flowers in rods not balls. Seed pods typically straighter.
Not to be confused with….
Acacia longifolia subsp. sophorae- Coastal Wattle
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Dense bushy shrub up to 10m tall.
- Leaves: Phyllodes yellowish-green, linear to narrowly elliptical, 2 prominent longitude veins (3-12cm).
- Flowers: (July -Spring) clustered in cylindrical yellow spikes, usually paired in leaf axils (to 3.5cm).
- Fruit: Coiled or twisted pod to 15cm.
Field Notes:
Often mistaken for Sallow Wattle (subsp. Longifolia), while Coastal (subsp. sophorae) is primarily a coastal species it now can invade inland sites. Distribution of both is now unclear. Leaves (phyllodes) often shorter, wider, and thicker than Sallow Wattle and seedpods commonly coiled
Coprosma robusta– Karamu
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Dense shrub or small tree to 8m.
- Leaves: Broad, ovate, leathery and hairless. Pointed at the apex and grows opposite. Finely toothed along the margins (to 8cm).
- Flowers: (July -Spring) Unisexual, females flowers 2 long hairy style branches, males with 4 fine pendulous stamens. Pale yellow-green, tubular.
- Fruit: Typically orange, fleshy globular.
Field Notes:
Leaves grow exactly opposite and are large. Can grow to a small tree whereas hirtella stays more as a shrub. Fruit ranges from yellow, orange to red.
Not to be confused with….
Coprosma hirtella– Rough Coprosma
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: A shrub 2m tall.
- Leaves: Rough, thick, broad leaves with distinct point on the end. Ovate and grows opposite (to 4cm).
- Flowers: (Spring-Summ) Unisexual, females flowers 2 long hairy style branches, males with 4 fine pendulous stamens. Pale yellow-green, tubular.
- Fruit: Red, fleshly globular.
Field Notes:
Leaves dark, short, hairless and rough that taper sharply to a point. Fruit is orange-red. Found in wet, montane forest.
Disa bracteata – South African Weed Orchid
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Fleshy, green and brown orchid 30-50cm tall.
- Leaves: Initially form clump at base then develop to green grass-like leaves that are purplish underneath (5-15cm).
- Flowers: (Summer) Crowed spike of up to 60 tiny brown-green hooded flowers in a dense spike resembling a brownish asparagus spear. Each flower surrounded by a tapering modified leaf.
Field Notes:
Only non-native orchid in Victoria. Tuber needs to be dug out and fully removed. Distinguished from other similar Onion-orchids (Microtis spp.) and Leek-orchids (spp.) by its rosette of 6-10 narrow leaves often with a reddish tinge to the underside. Native orchids can be distinguished as they have only a single leaf emerging at the base of the stem.
Not to be confused with….
Microtis unifolia – Common Onion Orchid
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Slender, wholly yellow-green orchid to 90cm tall.
- Leaves: Single, erect, fleshy, and hairless, up to 80cm long wrapped around stem.
- Flowers: (Summer) Crowed spike of 10-100 tiny yellow-green hooded flowers. The flowerhead emerges through a slit in the leaf.
Field Notes:
A single leaf. Finer form, not chunky
Anthoxanthum odoratum – Sweet Vernal-grass
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Sparsely and loosely tufted, mid-green, perennial grass with erect flower stems to 80 cm tall.
- Leaves: In loose basal tufts. Thin, flat, and finely hairy (10-25cm). Where the leaf sheath meets leaf blade there is a small membranous structure 1-5mm long.
- Flowers: (Spring -Summ) Inflorescence a dense, cylindrical, spike-like panicle to 10cm. Densely covered with “hairs” that become bronze with age.
Field Notes:
Flowers messy, densely covered with “hairs” that become bronze with age. Contains ‘coumarins’ that smells a bit of aniseed, you can smell at the roots when pulled out.
Not to be confused with….
Deyeuxia quadriseta- Reed Bent-grass
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Erect non- tufted and sparsely leafed perennial grass with flower stems to 1.5 m tall.
- Leaves: Rough, flat to slightly inrolled leaf (up to 30cm). Sheath pale and finely ribbed
- Flowers: (early spring to late autumn) Flowerhead dense and fluffy, cylindrical, spike-like 6-15 cm long. Pale green to purple.
Field Notes:
Tall flower head with neat structure and no fluffiness to it. Flower heads often have separate clusters at base with one flower per stem. Hairless, and can be distinguished by longer glumes (G) than lemmas (L) in the spikelet
Erica lusitanica– Spanish Heath
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Evergreen, slender erect woody shrub up to 2m tall.
- Leaves: Small prickly, stiff, narrow leaves that grow densely (to 7mm).
- Flowers: (winter – early spring) White or pale pink, tubular that turn brown when aged. Anther protruding out. Grows in groups of 2-4 at end of branches (4-5mm).
- Fruit: Small capsules 2-3mm long.
Field Notes:
Crowded needle-like leaves and short white tubular flowers that look clustered at end of branches.
Not to be confused with….
Epacris impressa- Common Heath
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Erect shrub to 1.2 m tall with small, prickly leaves and white, pink or red, tubular flowers in leaf axils
- Leaves: Small prickly, flat, linear- lanceolate to elliptic that are alternate and well-spaced (to 15mm).
- Flowers: (Mar-Nov) Variable colour- white, pink or red tubular with five triangular lobes Indentations at flower base, anthers level at flower opening. (4-20mm).
- Fruit: Small capsule 2mm long.
Field Notes:
Longer & wider well-spaced leaves, mostly it doesn’t form a thick shrubby habitat and flowers more cylindrical and less crowded on stem than Spanish Heath
Rubus fruticosus– Common Blackberry
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Dense sprawling shrub with arching thorny stems, to 2 m long
- Leaves: Dark green leaflets oblanceolate or broadly elliptic, pale- grey and hairy underneath (to 8cm). Margins toothed; thorns narrow, curved to 8 mm long, hairless stems.
- Flowers: (Late spring- summ) Pale pink, fading white in large clusters, 5 petals (to 20mm).
- Fruit: Edible blackberry (check whether sprayed)
Field Notes:
Forms dense thickets with pronounced thorns, large dark leaves, and white clustered flowers.
Not to be confused with…
Rubus parvifolius – Small-leaf Bramble
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Scrambling perennial prickly shrub to 1 m long.
- Leaves: Bright green wrinkled leaves, with a downy-white hairy underneath. 3-5 leaflets, the terminal leaflet usually the largest. Margins toothed and stems hairy.
- Flowers: Pink or red flowers, 5 petals (to 10mm).
- Fruit: Edible red raspberry-like fruit
Field Notes:
Scrambler, smaller ovate leaflets. Lighter colour and hairy stems. Has two sets of paired leaves that are well spaced as opposed to Blackberry that often has one set or two not spaced far apart.
Sollya heterophylla- Bluebell Creeper
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Twining shrub to 2m high.
- Leaves: Leaves aromatic 2-5cm long.Narrowly oblong, leaves glossy.
- Flowers: flowers are bright blue in small drooping clusters. Flowering September-December.
- Fruit: Fruit purplish, resembles a pod but is a cylindrical berry 2-3.5 cm long.
Field Notes:
Leaves have aromatic smell like coriander when crushed. Leaves shiny and waxy whereas apple berry are hairy and silky. Stems often have a reddish colour.
Not to be confused with….
Billardiera scandens– Apple Berry
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Twining ground flora or climber that forms a shrub to 1.5m high.
- Leaves: Leaves hairy, 0.5 wide to 5cm long, wavy margin, leaves have pale green silky underside.
- Flowers: flowers yellow, bell shaped droop inflorescence.
- Fruit: Fruit greenish in a cylindrical shape to 2cm long.
Field Notes:
Leaves silky hairy to touch, wavy or undulating leaf margins, stems brown rather than reddish. Plant seems more fragile and delicate then Sollya
Myosotis Slavatica– Forget Me Not
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Upright, to 50cm; softly hairy, with hairs at more-or-less right-angles to the main stem.
- Leaves: ovate to lance-shaped, velvety gray-green leaves to 4.5 inches long.
- Flowers: Flowers grey-blue, to 8mm across, flat in profile; sepal tube with hooked hairs; April-July
- Fruit: Mature fruit dark brown, shiny.
Field Notes:
Flowering Time: Spring – Summer – Seeding Time: late Spring – Summer. Occurs in Disturbed sites.
Not to be confused with….
Cynoglossum austral – Australian / Coast Hounds Tongue
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Erect to spreading perennial herb.
- Leaves: Rough-textured leaves in a basal rosette; leaves on the stem getting progressively smaller towards the top.
- Flowers: Small, slightly fragrant light blue flowers are produced from October to February.
- Fruit: Nutlets ovoid, 2-3.5 mm long and flattened, with barbed spines in centre of outer face and around wing-like margin.
Field Notes:
On the margins of coastal sand dunes, and grasslands and dry places throughout the State.
Pittosporum undulatum- Sweet Pittosporum
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Tall shrub to tree to 15m tall.
- Leaves: Leaves 6-17cm long, aromatic when crushed, glossy above pale below, wavy margins.
- Flowers: (July -Spring), flowers creamy-white, clustered in umbrella like inflorescence.
- Fruit: Globular capsule maturing to orange in colour.
Field Notes:
Leaves thin, longer and have smooth edges when juvenile.
Not to be confused with….
Myrsine howittiana- Muttonwood
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Tall Shrub 3-4 m tall.
- Leaves: Leaves alternate, clustered near ends of branches, smooth, edges wavy, leaves discolorous, 5-9cm. Thicker leathery feeling leaf.
- Flowers: (Spr-Summ), flowers greenish, flowers along older branches, drupes small, globular.
- Fruit: Fruit 5–7 mm diameter, blue or mauve, ripe Dec-June.
Field Notes:
Leaves have serrated edge when juvenile. Leaves hardier more leathery and thicker than pittosporum. Shrub has straighter form than pittosporum.
Ehrharta erecta- Panic Veldt Grass
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: A tufted perennial grass growing to 0.6 m high.
- Leaves: Flat, pale green leaves. Leaf blade 2-15 mm wide, glabrous, smooth or minutely rough.
- Flowers: Narrow, erect panicle 6-20 cm long, flowering from spring to summer.
- Fruit: Produces a prolific number of seeds with high viability, from spring to summer.
Field Notes: almost constantly in seed and develops large populations very quickly. Because it is so prolific it dominates the ground layer in native vegetation, restricting the growth and regeneration of indigenous plants and eventually eliminating smaller native species.
Not to be confused with….
Microlaena stipoides var. Stipoides- Weeping Grass
Spotting Characteristics:
- Habit: Tufting or matting perennial grass spreading from underground (Rhyzomic) stems.
- Leaves: Fine flat bright green to dark green, weeping leaves 1-12mm wide, smooth or rough, hairless to hairy.
- Flowers: Narrow weeping spike 5-18cm long. Green to purplish.
Field Notes:
Flowering: September to March. Very extensive in moist to well-drained soil in heathlands, woodlands and forests, dominant grass in some habitats.