Since its deliberate introduction from South Africa as a salad vegetable in 1830 the doublegee has spread to become a major weed throughout much of Australia.
It is one of the most serious weeds of crops and pastures in Western Australia, smothering other more useful plants while young, and troubling both humans and animals with its sharp spiny seeds when mature.
Using biological control techniques, scientists are now attacking it and related docks in three ways - with an aphid, a weevil and a fungus.
Within a few years it is hoped that while still present, the doublegee will be much less of a problem and more readily controlled by herbicides.
Three articles on the following pages outline the latest rounds in the ongoing campaign against doublegee
