Old man’s beard must go!

The tangled hump of vines is old man’s beard (Clematis vitalba), and anyone who was watching New Zealand television in the late-1980s will remember David Bellamy’s “Old man’s beard must go!” ad. Old man’s beard grows vigorously, strangles its host plant, shades out other plants and stops the seeds of other species from germinating: Bad news all around. Many regional and district councils have active programmes working at controlling old man’s beard. Efforts include using biological control agents, cutting back vines, pulling up seedlings and using herbicides on the foliage. Eradication requires multiple methods and repeated effort.