Coastal Galenia, Blanket Weed, Carpet Weed (Galenia pubescens)

Coastal Galenia, Blanket Weed, Carpet Weed (Galenia pubescens). A South African blanketing groundcover, this relative of native and non-native pig faces and ice plants in Aizoaceae is a twentieth century introduction to Melbourne and vicinity.

Within Australia, the species appears to have been first recorded at Corio near Geelong in 1901. By 1908, it had been spread to Melbourne, showing up on the once great botanical melting pot of Coode Island. However, the plant was initially limited in its spread to areas west of the Maribyrnong River, being recorded only in the vicinity of Williamstown, Seaholme and Footscray until the second half of the twentieth century. Only by the 1960s had Blanket Weed apparently broken out of this beachhead, as it spread into the central and eastern metropolitan and to places within the state’s north and east.

Although its bastion remains disturbed areas of the inner, lowland west from Geelong north to the Western Freeway, Galenia is reportedly a concern in a number of natural areas both east and west of Port Phillip Bay. In the urban context, it is perhaps most frequently found establishing carpets within the exotic-dominated lawns of road embankments and medians, as was the case with the plants in Docklands and Collingwood seen here.