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Although spring’s colourful display is in full swing, not all blossoms are welcome, with the Taiwan Cherry’s vivid pink flowers raising red flags for the Piroa Conservation Trust.
The trust is warning that the tree is becoming a serious ecological threat in Mangawhai.
Once popular in garden centres and planted widely as ornamental features, the eye-catching trees have naturalised aggressively. They thrive on steep, inaccessible sites and, when not in flower, are camouflaged against surrounding vegetation, making the plants hard to spot.
Piroa’s weed action coordinator Martina Tschirky says recently viewed footage showing a pristine, mature native forest with undergrowth just a dense carpet of cherry saplings, was a wake-up call.
“You’d be forgiven for thinking we don’t have many in the Mangawhai area, but high up on Old Waipu Road, there are hundreds at various stages of growth,” Tschirky says.
She estimates that up to 20 per cent of what appears to be mixed bush is actually a Taiwan cherry infestation.
“We often hear the argument that the flowers are great food for tūī. However, a current study is investigating whether these early blooms are misleading tūī into mating too soon.
“When the chicks hatch, the flowering has finished, potentially leading to starvation and chick mortality.”
Last year, with help of the Mangawhai Trackies, a large property on Old Waipu Road was cleared of the invasive pest, with volunteers using the cutting and pasting method to prevent regrowth.
“Simply cutting them down won’t eliminate them as they resprout readily,” Tschirky says. “The terrain was tough, but a team of four, including two seasoned Piroa weed warriors, managed to remove over 300 trees. Alarmingly, this infestation may have started from just a handful of trees.”
However, the battle is far from over and follow-up work will be required for several spring seasons.
“There are still a few Taiwan cherries scattered across other parts of Mangawhai and we strongly urge landowners to either remove them or reach out to us for help,” Tschirky says. “We can offer advice, volunteer support, and even a replacement feature tree as a bonus.”
An invasive weed guide can be found here: https://www.pbl.org.nz/page30.htmlCherry tree infestation threatens native bush
