The hidden dark side of our ‘wholesome' houseplant habit

Perth Now

19-05-2025

When I moved into my first rental, I did what most twenty-somethings do to make a place feel like home: I filled it with plants.
There were monsteras perched on the shelves, devil's ivy dangling artfully from macrame hangers and English ivy already curling up the balcony trellis, giving the place that overgrown, cottage-like charm.
I thought I was doing something good. Making my place greener. Connecting to nature in a small way. It looked lush and it felt wholesome.
Then I learned an uncomfortable truth and my view changed completely.
English ivy (Hedera helix), as it turns out, isn't a pretty trailing vine. It's a serious invasive weed in parts of Australia.
It spreads quickly, climbs aggressively and strangles trees. It's one of hundreds of ornamental species, including popular houseplants, that have made the leap from gardens into the bush and are now causing serious harm.
The more I learned, the more I started to notice it. Ivy tangled around gums. Mother in law's tongue creating spiked barren swaths in drier forests and grasslands. Gazanias completely overtaking beach dune systems. Arum lilies choking out creeks. The same plants I once thought of as low-effort greenery, out here, disrupting ecosystems and threatening already-vulnerable wildlife.
I didn't know any of this when I bought them — and I'm not alone.
Australia has more than 30,000 introduced plant species. At least 3000 of them have become naturalised weeds and many of the worst offenders were first introduced through nurseries, gardens and houseplants. They were planted or dumped, they escaped and now our environment is paying the price.
It's hard not to feel angry. How are we supposed to protect nature when the very plants threatening it are sold as 'low-maintenance ground covers' and 'house companion''?
Currently, there's no national rule to stop weedy plants from being sold in the first place. Instead, we wait until a species becomes a serious problem, then sometimes we ban it — by which point it's often already widespread and near-impossible to control.
The Invasive Species Council is campaigning for a nationally co-ordinated permitted list approach. It's a simple shift: instead of assuming all plants are safe unless proven otherwise, we do the opposite. Only those garden and house plants assessed as low-risk can be sold or imported. It's how we could stop the next lantana before it escapes into the bush.
If we're serious about protecting nature, we need to start in our own backyards.
We also need a national strategy to mitigate the damage caused by invasive plants already entrenched in our landscapes. Many of these plants continue to be sold, despite their destructive potential. Without a co-ordinated approach, we're effectively throwing millions into the losing battle of weed control, all while still stocking shelves with the very problem we're trying to eliminate.
I still have plants in my home, but now I know where they come from and what they might do if they escape the pot. I've researched what's locally native to me. I talk to my friends and family about it.
It's a small shift, but an important one.
This isn't a blame game or for guilting people about what's planted in their gardens. It's about smarter rules, clearer information and leadership from government.
Because the bush we walk through on weekends — the places we go to feel grounded and breathe — deserve better than to be quietly smothered by plants never meant to be there.
If we're serious about protecting nature, we need to start in our own backyards.
Nicola Barton is a media officer at the Invasive Species Council