Madeira Vine Anredera cordifolia

Starting with our worst weed: Madeira Vine Anredera cordifolia. This is a Weed of National Significance and it is a category 3 restricted invasive plant
under the Biosecurity Act 2014. It must not be given away, sold, or released into the environment.

Information and identification:

Native to South America, Madeira vine is a vigorous climber that  can produce thousands of aerial tubers along its stem. It is a serious environmental invasive plant that can degrade intact native forests, completely altering the environments it dominates.

We must manage the impacts of Madeira vine on our land.

Identification:

• Vigorous climbing vine.
• Leaves are light green, heart-shaped, fleshy, 4–5cm long (but can vary from only about 2cm long to at least 10cm long).
• Flower spikes are 10cm long, with numerous individual small flowers, resembling a lamb’s tail.
• Tubers are small, light brown or green, potato-like, growing along stems then falling to ground to sprout.

For more information on madeira vine you can visit the Biosecurity Queensland webpage here: Madeira vine (daf.qld.gov.au).

Impacts

• Madeira vine is a serious environmental weed that can degrade intact native forests, completely altering environments it dominates (transformer species).
• Smothers trees, shrubs and understorey species.
• Can cause canopy collapse of mature trees due to weight of vine.
• Can grow as a ground cover, disrupting native seedling germination and growth.
• Madeira vine adds to infrastructure damage during floods by destabilising banks and creating increased resistance for floodwater, which can uproot trees.
• Destruction of riverside vegetation by Madeira vine has led to increased bank erosion and water turbidity issues – affecting water catchment regions.

Madeira vine spreads from broken pieces of stem and aerial tubers and can be washed downstream when the aerial tubers fall into waterways. If you have Madeira vine on your property it is really important to start managing it. By controlling Madeira vine at your place you are helping to protect our beautiful rivers and the wildlife that depend on them for survival.

Control Methods

Every part of a Madeira Vine is potentially a new plant – underground tubers can produce new plants, aerial tubers can sprout and grow, and stem fragments can grow into new plants. Fortunately it doesn’t seem to produce viable seed in Australia! So control involves collecting and removing all parts of the plants. Larger vines can have very large underground tubers – these tend to break into pieces as they are being dug up – so it’s important to find all the pieces. Small sprouts on the ground are usually growing from a fallen aerial tuber, so it’s important to find and collect the tuber as well as the sprout. Vines and their attached aerial tubers also need to be collected. When vines are pulled down from the trees, all parts need to be collected, including the shower of aerial tubers which results! The only way that I have foud to successfully dispose of the plant material is to burn it – composting or storing in plastic bags in the sun for many months doesn’t generally work.

Some of our residents have been working on controlling madeira vine on their own properties and community owned land for many years.

Our control methods, which mostly involve hand removal, have been relatively successful at controlling the spread and limiting the production of aerial tubers. As the tubers last in the soil for many years, it is an on-going process to eliminate this weed. Persistence is required!