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Lygodium microphyllum (Old World Climbing Fern)
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 Lygodium microphyllum infestation

Pictures below are the two successful biological control agents 

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                     Close up of the mite Floracarus perrepae                                     Neomusotima conspurcatalis larvae

          

 


                     Click picture below to view a video of Lygodium microphyllum and the biocontrol agents to control it.   

                                                                                             

                                                                 

Click the following links for more information: 

Looking for Natural Enemies in Asia to Control Invasive Plants

Volatile chemistry, not phylogeny, predicts host range of a biological control agent of Old-World climbing fern.

 

Old world climbing fern (Lygodium microphyllum) is an invasive weed that threatens many wetland communities, including the Everglades. The fern entered Florida as a commercial ornamental plant and was first documented to have become naturalized in 1965, however its explosive growth and rapid spread are relatively recent and causing concern.

 

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Image from Volin, J.C., Kruger, E.L., Volin, V.C. et al. Plant Ecol (2010) 208: 223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-009-9700-6

 

L. microphyllum is native to wet areas in the Old World tropics and subtropics from west Africa to eastern and southern Africa, and eastern India through south-east Asia to northern Australia and the Pacific to Tahiti.

 

L. microphyllum is considered to be a good target for biological control for several reasons:

  1. It belongs to a taxonomically isolated group, not closely related to native or economic plants in Florida.
  2. It is not known to be a weed in its native range, apart from an unconfirmed report of weedy tendencies in Malaysia.
  3. Non-biological control methods are environmentally damaging and too expensive to use on the scale required to control it.

 

The UF/IFAS Center for Aquatic and Invasive Plants has created this excellent short educational video with more information