By Tyler Wright
Friends of Gembrook Park (FOGP) have almost reached their milestone of removing all English holly from Gembrook Park and are encouraging locals to replace their holly shrubs with plants native to the area.
FOGP said a particular problem arises when a large holly is felled by a falling branch of a gum tree. Wherever a holly branch touches the soil, it often forms roots resulting in the spread of the invasive species and preventing the germination of indigenous plants and reduces habitat for native wildlife.
“Smaller hollies (seedlings under 30 centimetres) you can pull out by hand can be pulled out by hand when soils are moist,” FOGP volunteer Cheryl DeCoite said.
So that’s really good that we’ve eliminated most of the big trees. But we still worked in the park [recently] and we were pulling out quite a lot of small ones,” Cheryl said.
Plants are either male or female with the female plant producing the berries. And while they may be pleasant to look at, Cheryl said when birds eat the plant’s berries, the shrub then spreads and “takes over” the environment, taking the place of actual food sources for native animals.
“What we’d really like is for people whose gardens have got hollies, particularly if they’re mature female hollies with the red berries – to eliminate them out of their gardens,” Cheryl said.
The plant is identifiable by its’ shiny leaves with spines and off-white or pinkish flowers.
Cheryl equates holly to another European native plant, ivy, which, when growing on Eucalyptus trees, prevents the natural shedding of bark and leads to disease.
“Ivy and Holly look really out of place in our bushland. If we can work together a bit more, it helps the environment.”
Friends of Gembrook Park are set to hold a program with Gembrook Primary School, supported by Landcare, encouraging children to help plant native trees and learn about local ecosystems within the next month.
