Red water fern

Azolla filiculoides (Azollaceae)

A free-floating perennial aquatic fern from tropical South American with horizontal stems up to 35mm long. It has a loose branching pattern. The leaves are 1-1,5mm long, almost circular in shape and are silvery-green turning reddish brown or purple in winter. 


Reed meadow grass

Glyceria maxima

Reed meadow grass is a perennial rhizomatous grass with unbranched erect stems growing up to 1-2.5m. It occurs in several Maloti-Drakensberg wetlands. Although this species has high erosion control and forage production values, it is extremely invasive. It is also known to be one of the most invasive grasses worldwide and has become a threat to wetland biodiversity where introduced.


Rock hakea

Hakea gibbosa (Proteaceae)

A prickly and hairy shrub or tree up to 4m high with numerous branches starting from the base. Young twigs and branches very hairy. Greyish-green, needle-shaped leaves which start off densely hairy becoming smooth. Deep cream, small flowers from June to September. Grey woody fruit capsules with a rough surface.


Rose apple

Syzygium jambos

An evergreen tree reaching 5-10m high with dark glossy green leaves 13-20cm long. Large, greenish-white flowers with showy stamens bloom from August to March. The cream yellow, rounded berries are tinged pink with a rose fragrance.


Rosea cactus

Cylindropuntia rosea

The rosea cactus is a branched, densely spiny, shrub-like succulent, growing up to 1.5m high. If allowed to spread, it has the potential to replace more useful species and affect the pastoral value and natural biodiversity of semi-arid plant communities. It is costly and time-consuming to control.


Rosemary grevillea

Grevillea rosmarinifolia

Rosemary grevillea is an evergreen, rounded, well-branched shrub reaching 2m in height. The flowers are pink to red, sometimes cream near their tips, and are curved downwards. It is known to invade fynbos. It reproduces only by seed, which is dispersed by ants, wind and water.


Russian tumbleweed

Salsola tragus

Russian tumbleweed is an annual weed that begins life as a typical multiple branched bush, which then takes on a spherical form. Once the spherical form is achieved, the plant breaks at the soil line and becomes a tumbleweed, which is blown by the wind, spreading thousands of seeds. It is abundant in semi-desert regions and is a typical plant of salty soils where rainfall is scarce. The plant is a hazard when it tumbles across roads as it can surprise drivers and cause traffic accidents.


Saligna gum

Eucalyptus grandis (Myrtaceae)

A tall, evergreen tree with a shaft-like trunk 25-55m high with smooth bark except for the part of the trunk up to 4m from the ground. The bark peels in long, thin strips to expose a powdery, white, grey-white or blue-grey surface. Dark green leaves which are glossy above and paler below. Cream flowers appear from April to August. Brown fruit capsules with a bluish-grey powdery surface. This tree invades forest clearings, plantations, water courses and roadsides.


Salt bush, Old man

Artiplex nummularia

A 1-2m high shrub with many creamy white stems from the base originating from Australian. Old man saltbush has scaly greyish or bluish-green. Flowers are minute and greyish to yellowish in colour, usually appear all year round. Grey-green turning pink or straw-coloured one-seeded fruits are produced.


Scented agrimony

Agrimonia procera

Herb up to 1.2 m high, hairy throughout. Stems with short glandular hairs and long simple hairs. Leaves pinnately divided into 7-13 large leaflets alternating with opposite pairs of much smaller leaflets, all deeply toothed. Flowers bright yellow, in long narrow terminal inflorescences, calyx covered with hooked bristles. Fruits: achene's, enclosed within the bristly, persistent calyx, 8 mm long, basal part ribbed for about ½ its length, upper bristles erect, lower bristles distinctly deflexed.