Bridal creeper entered the country as a garden plant and is now a major weed of bushland in southern Australia, where its climbing stems and foliage smother native plants. It forms a thick mat of underground tubers which impedes the root growth of other plants and often prevents seedling establishment.

Rare native plants, such as the rice flower Pimelea spicata, are threatened with extinction by bridal creeper. It invades undisturbed habitats and is a major threat to most low shrubs and groundcover plants in mallee, dry sclerophyll forest and heath vegetation.

In South Australia and southwestern Western Australia bridal creeper is considered the most important weed threat to biodiversity.

Key points

• Prevent new areas from becoming infested by safely disposing of garden waste.
• Spraying herbicide is the most effective method of controlling bridal creeper.
• Biological control is also having an impact in many areas; local communities can become involved in rearing and releasing the bridal creeper leafhopper and spreading the rust fungus.
• It will take many years for the biocontrol agents to reduce the density of bridal creeper due to the huge reserves stored underground in tubers.