Overview
SWAT sources its weed records from GBIF, a global database of biodiversity information. GBIF uses the Catalogue of Life taxonomy to categorise species. We use the term species generically to refer to taxa of any taxonomic rank.
The species listed in SWAT come from a number of sources including the Biota of NZ, the New Zealand Organisms Register (NZOR), the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network (NZPCN), Weedbusters, Regional Pest Management Plans (RPMPs) and other categories of weeds. In some cases, the New Zealand taxonomies map imprecisely to the Catalogue of Life. However, some species do not yet exist in the Catalogue of Life taxonomy.
SWAT includes GBIF weed records of all non-native Plantae species in NZ, plus a few species from the Chromista kingdom. Please contact us if you find records for native species in SWAT.
Where possible, we have added commonly used synonyms, common names and related species.
You can search for species using their scientific name, common name or synonym on the Species page, Search page or when creating a new alert.
Specific issues with species mapping to the Catalogue of Life taxonomy are listed below...
Lindavia intermedia
Lindavia intermedia (lake snow) is a freshwater weed listed in the Otago Regional Pest Management Plan.
This species is not currently in the Catalogue of Life taxonomy. All published records of it have been matched to the family Stephanodiscaceae. This family contains over 100 species, so it is much broader than Lindavia intermedia alone.
Until this is resolved, SWAT cannot alert on weed records of Lindavia intermedia. As a workaround, you can set up an alert for "Stephanodiscaceae" and check for weeds with a published name of Lindavia intermedia.
Rubus (Blackberry) species
Setting up blackberry alerts
An alert on just a few blackberry species could miss some records. To be notified of all blackberry records, add the genus Rubus to your alert,. Then check each Rubus record you are notified of to confirm whether it is an exotic blackberry species.
The sections below explain why.
Background
In New Zealand, the weedy blackberries were once grouped under one name, Rubus fruticosus L. The exception was cutleaf blackberry, R. laciniatus. The individual species were later described. But most everyday records still call blackberry Rubus fruticosus aggregate, usually shortened to agg.
Blackberry is not a single species. Blackberries reproduce unusually – they can set seed without cross-pollination. This has produced a very large number of slightly different forms that look almost identical. Botanists have named over 2,000 in Europe alone.
Blackberry in Regional Pest Management Plans
Several Regional Pest Management Plans list blackberry simply as Rubus fruticosus, with a common name 'blackberry' or 'blackberry (wild aggregates)'.
The Catalogue of Life taxonomy used by GBIF does not include this historical aggregate. On its own, Rubus fruticosus can only be matched to the whole genus Rubus.
SWAT maps blackberry to the Rubus genus and excludes native Rubus species.
Blackberry records published to GBIF (as at June 2026)
SWAT brings in weed records from GBIF. How a blackberry sighting comes through depends on how it was originally recorded:
Records of Rubus fruticosus L. come through as Rubus plicatus.
Records of Rubus fruticosus or Rubus fruticosus agg. come through only as the genus Rubus.
Tip - setting up blackberry alerts. Because blackberry-aggregate records may be translated to R. plicatus or the genus Rubus, an alert on just a few blackberry species could miss some records. To be notified of all blackberry records, you can set your alert on the genus Rubus, and then check each Rubus record to confirm whether it is an exotic blackberry species.
Other Rubus species that are not counted as blackberries
These species in the Rubus genus appear in SWAT but are not classified as blackberries:
Dewberries and close relatives — R. caesius (dewberry) and R. conjungens.
Some North American brambles — R. ursinus, R. laudatus, R. × boyntonii and R. × floricomus.
Not blackberries at all — raspberries and their relatives (R. idaeus, R. occidentalis, R. phoenicolasius, R. ellipticus, R. illecebrosus, R. rosifolius, R. cockburnianus), several Asian species (R. lineatus, R. moluccanus, R. rugosus, R. setchuenensis, R. rolfei), R. odoratus, R. chamaemorus (cloudberry), R. fockeanus, R. glaucus, and the loganberry R. × loganobaccus.
Since SWAT excludes native species, records of the following native species will not appear in SWAT:
New Zealand native bush lawyers (tātarāmoa) — R. australis, R. cissoides, R. parvus, R. schmidelioides (and its varieties schmidelioides and subpauperatus), R. squarrosus, and the hybrid R. × barkeri. These natives are never blackberries and are never pulled in by a Rubus fruticosus record. Watch the one-letter mix-up: the native R. cissoides versus the weedy blackberry R. scissoides .
A note on confusing names
A few blackberry names cause ongoing confusion. The Himalayan blackberry is correctly called R. armeniacus. The older names R. procerus and R. discolor have often been used for it by mistake. The plant name list SWAT uses keeps R. armeniacus, R. procerus and R. praecox as separate species, so all three appear in the list above.