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Horrible Hornwort
May 2011
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Recently, hornwort has been targeted more than usual due to the
World Rowing Championships at Lake Karapiro
It’s the worst submerged weed in New Zealand, not only because it
can grow as tall as a three story building, but it can grow deeper
than other weeds (down to 12m) and doesn’t have any roots.
It has long slender brittle stems with stiff forked leaves and prefers
clear deep water, but it’s not fussy and grows in a wide range of
sites. It grows extremely quickly, outcompeting other plants and
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smothering them.
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We have a great environment for it here and it was rst found in
1961 in drains near the Tukituki River in Hawke’s Bay. It was an
aquarium escapee. In only a couple of years it was found in
Waikato, then in 1981 in the Bay of Plenty, the next year in
Manawatu, and it also spread to Auckland.
Now power stations have better systems for cleaning off aquatic
weeds, with screen cleaners activated when plants build up to a
certain level. It’s expensive to remove and it also costs money in
terms of lost generation potential.
Hornwort does very well in cold water, and it can grow anywhere,
even when it is iced over. Although it is found throughout the
North Island and in Lake Taupo, it’s not in every water body.
Grass carp would eat it but they need to be contained, and you’d
need a risk assessment to make sure they wouldn’t escape too. It’s
not very palatable and not highly preferred on the menu of
vegetarian sh.
Power companies have looked at pulverizing it, but really there are
only two key ways to control it: grass carp or chemicals. There are
a couple of herbicides which can be used to good effect.
It grows a bit like a trifd and it’s heavy because it is 96% water. If
you dry it out it is only 5-6% dry weight.
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It has limited use and might have some potential for biogas
generation. It has also been used in some worm farms but these MENU
aren’t solutions.
There are some quite novel approaches in the Rotorua Lakes with
cordons on several of the lakes.
The idea is to stop the problem at the top of the cliff, rather than
dealing to it when it has spread into any new uninfested water
body or into the South Island.
Both of the outbreaks in the South Island were dealt with very
quickly, and since their treatment, nothing else has been found.
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