The Lets’eng-la-Letsie wetland is an official Ramsar site, but the wetland and upland catchment areas suffer from overgrazing, erosion and over exploitation. Chrysocoma ciliata has a reputation as an unpalatable invader and is particularly common on the drier northern slopes. The objectives of the study were to quantify the phytomass of this shrub with the aid of a developed allometric phytomass quantification technique and to evaluate the ecological significance of this shrub within the area. Highly significant (p < 0.001) positive regressions with coefficients of determinations as high as r² = 0.94 between phytomass and plant canopy diameter were achieved. The upland slopes support a high density of more than 35 000 C. ciliata plants ha⁻¹ with a phytomass of more than 3 600 kg DM ha⁻¹ and a correspondingly low herbaceous phytomass of 446.57 kg DM ha⁻¹. The edible parts of the plants (flowers, leaves and shoots <2.0 mm in diameter) were estimated to be 1 198 kg DM ha⁻¹, with a crude protein content of 8.84%. There was evidence that C. ciliata is intolerant of wet conditions and the degradation of the catchment areas will result in drier soil profiles, which will favour the further spread of this species.

Lets'eng-la-Letsie湿地是拉姆萨尔（Ramsar）的官方所在地，但是湿地和高地集水区遭受过度放牧，水土流失和过度开发的困扰。纤毛虫（Chrysocoma ciliata）被誉为“难吃的入侵者”，在较干燥的北坡上尤为常见。该研究的目的是借助已开发的异位植物数量定量技术，对该灌木的植物数量进行定量，并评估该灌木在该地区的生态意义。在植物茎与植物冠层直径之间的确定系数高达r ² = 0.94时，具有高度显着的（p <0.001）正回归。高地斜坡支持超过35000 C.的高密度纤毛。植物ha ^-1的植物茎大于3 600 kg DM ha ^-1，相应的低草本植物的植物茎为446.57 kg DM ha ^-1。估计植物的可食用部分（直径小于2.0 mm的花，叶和芽）为1198 kg DM ha ^-1，粗蛋白含量为8.84％。有证据表明，纤毛虫不能忍受潮湿条件，集水区的退化将导致土壤剖面干燥，这将有利于该物种的进一步传播。