ANOTHER PEST?

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 73, 27 March 1935, Page 6

ANOTHER PEST?

UNICORN PLANT

A plant with a seed-pod like a very short and very fat • runner-bean pod, a small yellow flower, and a leaf like that of a small pumpkin, was discovered by a Gisborne resident recently, states the Napier "Daily Telegraph." It has been identified as the martynia louisiana, commonly known in America as the unicorn plant. It is a native of tropical North America, and the manner in which the seed became transmitted to New Zealand will probably remain a mystery. A plant of .the same species was found in the district last summer.

It is a weed, and, according to Mr. J.-Stevenson, an old termer now living in retirement in Bright Street, Gisborne, it is a dangerous weed, which should be checked immediately when found. From a very email plant.. it spread itself over an area the size of a small house. When the seed pods were young, they were easily cut, but when mature were almost as hard as iron and covered with spikes nearly as sharp asl fish-bones, and were particularly dangerous to cattle. He was taking the precaution of burning all seed-pods, so as to avoid danger of a further spread of the weed. ■'