Mexican Feather Grass - Illegally sold by Big W

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/banned-weeds-seized-in-big-w-blitz/2008/05/20/1211182772843.html?s_cid=rss_news

Victorian environment officers have seized hundreds of illegal
weeds after they were found on sale at retailer Big W.
More than 300 of the banned Mexican feather grass plants, also
known as Texas Tussock, were found at 18 Big W stores across
Victoria.
They were on sale in white metal jugs and slatted timber
containers, under the label Summerhill.
About 100 of the weeds had been sold and Victorian Agriculture
Minister Joe Helper said the remaining 200-plus plants were
immediately withdrawn from sale.
Mr Helper said Department of Primary Industries' (DPI) officers
seized hundreds more of the prohibited weeds from Big W's wholesale
supplier.
"Big W is co-operating with the Department of Primary Industries
to trace all sold plants and a product recall will take place over
the coming days," Mr Helper said.
"DPI is working closely with Big W and the plant wholesaler to
discover where the weed was imported from."
Customers who bought a Mexican feather grass are urged to return
the plant to Big W for a full refund or to call the DPI on 13 61
86.
The weed is similar to serrated tussock, which is widely
regarded as the worst pasture weed in Australia, but is more
pervasive.
It grows to 70 centimetres high and is environmentally
destructive.
Mexican feather grass was inadvertently introduced into
Australia from the United Kingdom and has since been unwittingly
sold in nurseries as an ornamental plant.
The DPI estimates weeds cost the Australian economy about $4
billion a year.

*** Interesting really - tut tut to the Big W! ***

Good to see they know the rules and regs of what they sell... makes you wonder who and what other big stores are selling illegals?

Wow, I do wonder how frequent this would be.
A few months ago the Melbourne Cacti society had a representative from the dpi give a talk on succulent weeds. There's so many potential weeds, potential illegal plants. They don't focus on plants that are out of control, blackberries, lantana, etc. they focus on plants that are almost unheard of but do have great potential to become invasive. So there's loads of illegal weed plants most of us have never heard of.

I doubt the Big W would have been aware of the plant, but their supplier should know about this sort of thing.

I was in Goulburn a few months ago where they have a terrible problem with serrated tussock. I was working on an organic farm, one of my jobs was to walk around the paddocks with a mattock, digging up any tussocks i could find. It was everywhere, i felt my efforts were completely futile. I'd hate to see another evil plant like this around.