Weed of the Month: Mother of Millions

Invasive speciesWeedsHi TidingsEnvironment
Written By Angela Hoskins

This article was first published in Hi Tidings in August 2023.

Mother of Millions flower

By Rae Wear (Rae is from the Native Nursery on Coochiemudlo Island)

The well-named Motherof Millions is a prolific environmental weed of Coochiemudlo’s Emerald Fringe. It is a succulent, growing up to a metre, with mottled purplish-brown leaves and heads of apricot bell-shaped flowers. It is native to Madagascar and is another weed that started out as a garden ornamental. Reproduction occurs from seeds, leaf or stem pieces and tiny plantlets along the edge of the leaves. It likes sandy, disturbed soils and can survive extreme drought. If left, its dense mat-Iike growth crowds out indigenous plants.

Dianella (Blue flax lily) and Lomandra (Mat rush) species are attractive native alternatives. More information about mother-of-millions can be found at

Native alternatives

Dianella (Blue flax lily) and Lomandra (Mat rush) species are attractive native alternatives.

More information about mother-of-millions can be found at The State of Queensland, Department of Agriculture and Fisheries (PDF).

Angela Hoskins

Built my first site in 2000 and steadily learned what it takes to make websites work. Dabbled in WordPress back then, still do. Since building my first Squarespace site in 2016, I’ve been impressed with the relatively streamlined approach to website design and development that Squarespace offers compared to WordPress. SEO was a major challenge from the start — I’ve spent a lot of time keeping up with what’s required to get sites working, ranking well on a SERP. I have confidence with what Squarespace offers for SEO.

Having worked for more than 10 years in the web team of an inland, regional university in Australia and dealing with frustrations that come with working for a large corporate enterprise, the idea of setting up my own web design business became my goal.

Set up my business in late 2017. Opted for a sea change, too: I now live on Coochiemudlo Island 45 minutes from Brisbane. Love working from home. Love working for small business clients. Still get casual work with the university.

Challenges? The main one is pricing my work for small businesses. Doing quality work, doing the research to be up to date in the industry, takes time; it’s hard to factor in this time to my pricing while being competitive in the market and affordable for many small businesses.

https://sitecontent.com.au
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