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1. Failing to account for uncertainty in the detection of invasive plants may lead to inefficient management strategies and wasted resources. Smart strategies to manage plant invasions requires consideration of the economic costs and benefits, and plant life‐history characteristics as well as imperfect detection.

2. We develop a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP) to provide optimal management actions when we are uncertain about the presence of invasive plants. The optimal strategy depends on the probability of being in a particular state. We ask the question, ‘When is it preferable to use a less efficient, less costly action to a more efficient, more costly action?’ We apply the POMDP to branched broomrape Orobanche ramosa, a parasitic plant species at the centre of a national eradication campaign in South Australia.

3. The optimal strategy depends on the ability to detect the invasive species …