Migrants bite into dangerous weed

By Vanessa Bidois

Hamilton - New migrants growing a super-weed for food may be risking their health and courting environmental disaster.

Immigrant communities in the Waikato, including Somali and Sri Lankan families, are growing and eating the alligator weed, an invasive pest they have mistaken for a leafy vegetable from Asia.

The practice came to light last month when Health Waikato's community dietitian alerted the regional council, Environment Waikato.

The Waikato Medical Officer of Health, Dell Hood, said the weed could have toxic effects.

He recalled a similar mistaken identity recently where two people needed hospital treatment after eating a soup made with wild mushrooms.

"In this case the victims were recent immigrants, highlighting the risk people from overseas may be taking by mistakenly identifying a fungus or plant as the same or similar to something they used to eat in their country of origin," Dr Hood said.

"Everyone is at risk, however, regardless of origin, because in every country many fungi are highly poisonous and people everywhere should be extremely cautious about gathering them in the wild without expert knowledge."

Dr Hood said the simple rule was not to use any plant for food unless it had been identified as safe.

Paul Cameron, a scientist with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said alligator weed had been classified as an unwanted organism by the Ministry of Agriculture.

It acted like a sponge when grown in a hostile environment containing toxic chemicals.

"It's one of the few weeds that can grow quite happily on completely dry land as well," Mr Cameron said.

"It's actually an urban weed in parts of Auckland, growing in waste areas, so it just shows how versatile the thing is.

"That really makes it into a super-weed."

Michael Bent, of Environment Waikato, said the semi-tropical weed was also established in Northland but it had been found elsewhere in the North Island.

The plant caused sensitivity to light in stock, and in Kaipara, where the weed grew in waterways used by cattle, farmers bought black animals to counteract the effects.

"There are, unfortunately, very new infestations in the Bay of Plenty, which they're flat out controlling and it looks like they will do," Mr Bent said.

"But that indicates it's on the spread. We've got quite a bad infestation in the mouth of the Waikato River at Port Waikato that is being contained.

"We're having some difficulty in eradicating it because it's growing in a water environment, which is always hard to treat."

Mr Bent said Environment Waikato had met representatives of the Somali and Sri Lankan communities, who were happy to cooperate.

People who were growing the plant could contact the council and they would be given the edible variety.

"They're keen to be good citizens and I think that if we approach this sensibly, yes, we will control it," Mr Bent said.

"If it does get out of hand, we have one awfully big problem."