Presence of Mimosa diplotricha in Ethiopia was recorded in several places along the Weliso – Jima and Gambella highway, during a recent joint survey of CABI Africa, IUCN and EIAR in the south western Ethiopia. This survey revealed that M. diplotricha was extremely abundant on roadsides, riparian vegetation and on forest edges. In some areas it was also invading coffee plantations. Its spread was clearly associated with road-making, the spread of soils and the movement of heavy earth-moving equipment. This is a serious and spreading invasion of a plant that is considered extremely damaging in India and Australia and which needs attention soonest.

 EIAR is consulting various concerned stakeholders in the affected areas to contain its spread. Read more …..
The survey team members were: Mr. Arne Witt, International Project Coordinator of the UNEP/GEF RBIPMA Project from CABI Africa; Professor Geoffrey Howard, Director, Global Invasive Species and Ms Esther Abonyo, Entomologist, from IUCN; Dr Taye Tessema, Assistant National Project Coordinator, UNEP/GEF RBIPMA Project from EIAR.
According to survey team report; this spiny species of Mimosa (which is different from M. invisa Mart. Ex Colla but is sometimes wrongly called M. invisa Mart.var inermis Adelb. which is a more recent synonym) is a native of tropical America – especially in Brazil, which is thought to be its land of origin. M. diplotricha is a seriously invasive plant in parts of Asia, Australia and some Pacific Islands nations and is recorded from a number of African countries where it was believed to be introduced as a garden plant
due to its attractive flowers and use as a live fence (or hedge) which is effectively impenetrable because of its extremely spiny stems and leaves. In Ethiopia it has been known from the south-western part of Ethiopia, from Mizan Teferi and near Tepi, where it was described as being "grown as a living fence". That record is in a volume of

Figure:1

74, referred to as M. invisa Mart. Ex Colla which is a misidentification as suggested by the survey team) - so it has been around for more than 20 years in the country, but reported as naturalized or spreading. It has also been recorded (herbarium specimens) in Gambela (Abobo), 33 km East of Gambela and in the Bonga forest. During this survey this species is recorded in the town of Gambela, along the road eastwards beside the Baro River [Fig. 1] (together with M. pigra), up the escarpment – even on the sides of rocky outcrops and road excavations – and in any damp areas, near Bure, before Gore, in the forest towards Masha, on the road to Tepi and in Tepi. From Tepi it became even more abundant amongst fields, farms, forest [Fig. 2] and coffee with some efforts being made to clear it from coffee estates. It was climbing roadside and open space forest trees and

Figure:2

 even coffee bushes. It was abundant from Tepi to Sheka and was clearly associated with road-making, the spread of soils and the movement of heavy earth-moving equipment. The same plant was evident at Mizan Teferi, Shishinda, WushWush and in the Bonga forest and Bonga town to Jima. Around Jima and towards Addis Ababa the plant was noticeably drier [Fig 3] and had already produced masses of pods and seeds. It was common on roadsides but also in fields and areas of thicket and woodlands. For more pictures refer [Figures 4 and 5).

Figure:3

Source of information: Geoffrey Howard (Geoffrey W. Howard ), Arne Witti ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ), Esther Abonyo, (Esther Abonyo ) and Taye Tessema ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ) --- Invasive Alien Plants Survey Report, Ethiopia, December, 2009.