Pig Face or Carpobrotus glaucescens species are a common trailing plant with succulent leaves and large flower found in sand dunes along Australian coastlines, and is native to Port Stephens!
The native Pig Face is facing a real risk from hybridisation with the non-native pig face that have escaped from peoples gardens and other plantings.
It's really important to only plant the local native pig face from locally sourced stock. There's a big issue of introduced non-native Pig Face going wild in Australia. In some places in South Australia, researchers found that half of the Carpobrotus in the wild were hybrids with the non-native plant. Hybrid Carpobrotus can be aggressive and take over the native Carpobrotus in their habitat.
In Bundjalung country the local Carpobrotus, "Nyully", has a unique taste with some likening it to a 'salty kiwifruit'. It's very important that we retain the Carpobrotus for its flavour profile and its natural sand dune stabilisation – which is a key environmental feature for our coast line in Port Stephens.
The non-native Pig Face is easy to remove, but make sure you get the plant correctly identified before removing! Your local garden centre can help you with this – take in a clipping and get some advice.
Australia has 6 species, 4 of are native and 2 are introduced. The native Carpobrotus flower 'petals' are generally pink with a white base where the non-native Carpbrotus 'petals' are either yellow or pink all the way to the bottom edge, and the stems of one species have a reddish tinge.
Our Natural Systems Team recommend replacing with cuttings of the local native Carpobrotus glaucescens or any other native plant of your choosing.
If you'd like to do more for your local environment, why not join a local landcare group?
