Flora
Plant of the Month: Call me Ishmael
“Call me Ishmael. Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off... read more
Plant of the Month: Not those blueberries?!
For those of you waiting for the thrilling conclusion of the key to the Eucalypts of the Hunter Region you’ll just have to wait a little longer as I wade through the stringybarks, but I’ll get there, eventually, probably. You may have seen some stories on the Hunter... read more
Plant of the Month: The Littlest Aliens!
There are times I, and many others, question my sanity, deciding to write up a key to the Eucalypts of the Hunter has been one of those times. It was all going well till I got to the Stringybarks and Mahoganies. I’ve been wading my way through it for the past couple... read more
Mistletoe Resources and Further Reading
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Mistletoe Propagation Manual
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Plant of the Month: Red Gums
Last month we looked at the Grey Gums and Blue Gums, this month we’re on to the Red Gums, the defining characteristics for the Red Gums is smooth bark, gumnuts (fruits) with raised discs and exserted valves and the leaves same colour on both sides (concolorous). The... read more
Plant of the Month: All the colours of the rainbow!
Well, not really, that’s reserved for the Rainbow Gum (Eucalyptus deglupta) which is a native of the Philippines but we are getting into the “coloured” gums, Blues, Browns, Greys and Reds. So, we’re on the smooth barked, valves “exserted” (sticking out) from the... read more
The Wanderer Butterfly
Danaus plexippus plexippus Also known as Red Wanderer or Monarch Butterfly This well-known red/orange with black markings butterfly was first observed in Australia in Sydney in 1858. Prior to that it was well known in North America where it bred up in huge numbers... read more
Plant of the Month: By Gum, that’s it!
While it’s common to refer to all Eucalypts as Gum Trees when it comes to identification “Gum Trees” generally refer to Eucalypts and closely related (Angophora and Corymbia) with more or less smooth bark on their trunks and branches. Within the “gums” there’s a lot... read more
Plant of the Month: What’s in the Box?
This month I’m back to our rather slow series of keys to the Eucalypts of the Hunter. if you’ve missed (or forgotten) I’ve previously done keys to Ironbarks, Scribbly Gums, Mallees, Bloodwoods (Corymbia) and the Apples (Angophora). This month we’re looking at the... read more
Plant of the Month: Not a Murder Chicken!
Despite being named for their leaves resemblance to the feathers of the Cassowary Casuarinas are unlikely to attempt to disembowel you should you startle one while out bushwalking, unlikely, but no guarantees. While they may look like pine trees, Casuarinas (and... read more
Plant of the Month – Grains
Sigh, I was wr….. Not exactly right…. You know how you’ve been telling people stuff for almost 30 years and no one’s ever corrected you and finally you get around to trying it and…… Grains have been quite a common food item across many cultures, high in carbohydrates... read more
News from Dungog Common Landcare
Dungog Common Landcarers were able to capture a very rare sight while out on the common this month- not only the Cynanchum elegans (White-flowered Wax Plant- Endangered under the EPBC Act) in flower, but wait…. also the caterpillar of the moth that lays her eggs on... read more
Plant of the Month: Lotions and Potions!
I generally keep away from the medicinal uses of native plants as there’s a lot of cultural significance and sometimes ceremony attached to the use and preparation of them, but there are a few I refer to as “first aid plants” which I find are quite useful to have a... read more
What’s in a Name? Where am I?
Plant names can often refer to the location where the plant grows or was first found, given that many plants were traded well before they were ascribed scientific names it can get a little confusing.
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Ask a Plant Nerd: Grass
Grasses and lots of other plants can tell us a lot about soil type, fertility, moisture, land use, fire history, salinity and so on, it’s not an exact science but knowing plants and some of their ecological requirements helps us to understand our sites better and to better manage them.
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Plant of the Month: Arr, me scurvy dogs!
Ok, so it’s a little early for International Talk Like a Pirate Day but one issue for pirates, other seafarers and more than a few landlubbers was the disease of scurvy brought about by lack of Vitamin C in the diet, this was a big issue in the Royal Navy till young Jimmy Cook had lemons, limes and sauerkraut as mandatory dietary items for his underlings as they bobbed about the world’s oceans (“no dessert for you till you’ve sucked on a lemon”).
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What’s in a Name? In the lap of the Gods.
One of the more common practices in botany and zoology is to name a species after a Greek or Latin god or figure of legend, here’s a few of them.
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Growing Together: A Flourishing Month for Landcare Plant Distribution!
In the heart of Muswellbrook, our Landcare nursery has been buzzing with activity this month as we proudly distributed a whopping 1150 plants to eager Landcarers. The green thumb community is thriving, and the total number of tubestock plants shared among Landcarers... read more
Plant of the Month: Looking for some hot stuff…
If you’re a late Boomer or early Gen Xer you’ve probably now got this earworm going (Millenials and Gen Y or Z should watch as well to see what cool music really is), this month we’re looking at some native herbs and spices (some of which have been used in our current... read more
The Marvels of Australian Mistletoe: Busting Common Myths
Australian mistletoe plays a crucial role in supporting biodiversity, punching above its weight in ecological significance
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Plant of the Month: Would you like a cuppa?
When you’re out of tea (or coffee) you’ll pretty much use anything and that must have led to some interesting experimentation by the first colonists, I’m guessing many were tried with some very interesting results before settling on some more or less acceptable “tea” making species.
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Donkey Orchids at Greta Central Park
HRLN held its first working bee with volunteers at Greta Central Park this month. Greta Central; during the session, we discovered a beautiful patch of donkey orchids, Diuris punctata.
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Plant of the Month: Ouch, Spiky!
One of my favourite groups of plants are the Epacrids (recently lumped in with the Ericaceae), small shrubby plants with small spiky leaves, parallel venation and tubular flowers with five petals, these can be roughly divided into dry fruit and fleshy fruit with the fleshy fruited ones usually being pretty tasty.
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Plant of the Month: In the Grip of the Grape
You may not know it but Australia has quite a few native members of the grape family (Vitaceae). We’re all familiar with Vitis vinifera (and other table and wine grapes) but less well known is that Australia is home to around 30 members of the Vitaceae family, occurring in all mainland states except South Australia (though I think they make up for it with production of Vitis vinifera).
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Plant of the Month: Fruits of the Forest
Another vegetation type which is high in numbers of edible plants are the rainforests, we’ve previously talked about the Magenta Lily Pilly (Szyzigium paniculatum) and Sandpaper Fig (Ficus coronata) Plum Pine, (Podocarpus elatus) (Gurra-warra – Kattang) Also... read more
Plant of the Month: Vegetable Chicken
Where there’s water there’s food, this also applies with salt water, saltmarshes generally having a few edible species either in them or nearby, generally growing in salt water are the halophytes, these plants suck up salt water and retain the salt in their leaves.... read more
Plant of the Month: “You can eat it, but it tastes like…”
Following on from our recent Bush Foods day at Blandford I’m taking a break from trying to identify Eucalypts and looking at some of our local bushfoods. Within the Hunter there would be well over 200* species of native plant which are or have been recorded as edible,... read more
Plant of the Month: Lomandra longifolia
Member of Wollombi Landcare, Andrea Lang has written a short and entertaining article about how to gather and grow this creek-side helper, so please enjoy the article and get your Lomandra on! Lomandra is the backbone of many a revegetation project because of its... read more
The Woodland Plant Helping Regent Honeyeaters from then Brink of Extinction
With less than 300 birds left in the wild, the Regent Honeyeater is a bird in dire need of help. These stunning birds will travel vast distances in search of food sources that provide high yields of nectar. Spotted Gum, Broad-leaved Ironbark, and Swamp Mahogany are... read more
Plant of the Month: Who’s a Sap?
The next group of Eucalypt like trees we’re looking at are the bloodwoods. The bloodwoods derive their common name from the large amount of sap they produce, previously listed in the Eucalyptus they were split off into the Corymbia genus in the 1990’s. Apart from the... read more
Plant of the Month: She’ll be Apples!
Within the Eucalypts and close relatives the common names of many of the groups do make a bit of sense, Ironbarks, Stringybarks, Boxes are all named for their bark, the Bloodwoods are so named for the large amount of sap they produce but what about these things called... read more
Winner of Australia’s Favourite Tree Announced
Take me to the river… “The contest is over, the dust has settled and one magnificent tree stands above the rest. It twists and turns as it gathers water from deep underground, reaches for the sky and sends generous branches in improbable directions. For... read more
Plant of the Month – Mallees
Plant of the Month: “I don’t mind at all if you call me a Mallee Boy.” The famous song by John Williamson refers to the Mallee Region of Western Victoria an area famous for it’s stunted multi-stemmed Eucalypts known as Mallees. The Mallee growth form is a fairly... read more
Plant of the Month: Brigalow
A dandy old horsernan is Brigalow Mick-Which his name, sir, is Michael O’Dowd -Whatever he’s riding, when timber is thick,He is always in front of the crowd.BRIGALOW MICK by Harry (“Breaker”) Morant Images from: plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au Aside... read more
Plant of the Month: The Tale of White Beard
Common in heathlands and sandstone areas the Bearded Heaths (Leucopogon spp) look fairly unremarkable till coming into flower and fruit. The Bearded Heath gets it’s botanical Genus Leucopogon from the Greek “Leuco-” meaning white and “pogon” meaning beard, for once... read more
What’s the difference between native, indigenous and endemic plants? And why is it important?
These terms confuse a lot of people, so let’s just take a minute to clear things up. ‘Native’ is a general term for plants that occur naturally in a country but not necessarily across the whole of that country. ‘Indigenous’ – Indigenous species are categorised as a... read more
Plant of the Month: Big Bad Banksia Men
Big Bad Banksia Men Australian author May Gibbs cast the “Big Bad Banksia Men” as the villains of many of her stories, looking at the cones of the Old Man Banksia (Banksia serrata) it is quite easy to imagine them as heads of some creature (though I think casting them... read more
Plant of the Month: The Call of the Lotus
Odysseus removing his men from the company of the lotus-eaters (source: Wikipedia) They started at once, and went about among the Lotus-eaters, who did them no hurt, but gave them to eat of the lotus, which was so delicious that those who ate of it left off caring... read more
Vines gone mad?
Do you have a native vine gone mad with the La Niña conditions we are experiencing? Native vines are an important part of our natural forests. Photos by Dennis Mayo A tangle of native vines can provide food, shelter and nesting sites for many different species of... read more
Plant of the Month: Eucalyptus nortonii
Life would be so much easier….. Y’know, life would be so much easier if plants could read books, they’d know important things like where they should grow, when they should flower and what they should look like. It would save me a lot of confusion. I’ll often find... read more
Plant of the Month: Learning new ‘trix
Here’s an interesting one for you (well, they’re all interesting to me at least), I was out in the field a few weeks back doing a follow up on the Fairy Bells work I’ve been doing the past couple of years (see: insert link). One of our monitoring sites is in the... read more
Plant of the Month: Staying Muddy
Last month we were in the mud looking at mangroves, this month we’ll go slightly closer shoreward and take a look at what grows in the hypersaline environment of the Salt Marshes. Salt Marshes occur around the high tide zone, often in shallow depressions which fill on... read more
Cactus Causing Prickly Problem
Loading... Taking too long? Reload document | Open in new tab View, Print and Download [659.68 KB] A new state-wide campaign is urging residents to be on the lookout for the prohibited sale or trade of prickly pear cacti. Image of Blind cactus, courtesy of Queensland... read more
Helping Scientists Control Lantana – Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain
Do you have Lantana camara in your backyard or on your property? Our scientists are documenting patterns in Lantana’s genetic diversity across Australia and need your help. “Lantana camara is a widespread shrub with colourful flowers. It’s poisonous to people... read more
Plant of the Month: Mangroves – Getting Muddy
There’s a concept in evolutionary biology called convergent evolution, it’s where distantly related organisms evolve the same or similar strategies for dealing with the environment in which they find themselves. One example many will be aware of are the Thylacines... read more
Plant of the Month: Please don’t pull this one out
Another couple of plants which commonly get mistaken for weeds (and pulled out) is Flannel Leaf (Astrotricha floccosa). With a home range between Newcastle and Sydney it’s found in Dry Sclerophyll Forest on sandstone, unfortunately the leaves can have a strong... read more
Ask a Plant Nerd: From Little Things
Ask a Plant Nerd: From little things. This month’s “Ask a Plant Nerd” question comes from HRLN committee member Les Pearson who asks “What’s a forb and why are they important?” The first bit is easy, a forb is a herbaceous flowering non graminoid (grass like) plant,... read more
Plant of the Month – Of Serpents and Spinifex
Botanically the Hunter Region compares well with other regions of the world for diversity. Given our geographic location with the New England Fold Belt to the North and East and the largely sedimentary Sydney Basin to the South and West (with the Hunter-Mooki Thrust... read more
Watch Your Step
When most people think of rare plants they think of large and exotic and hidden in the middle of nowhere. Oftentimes the rare ones can be found right under our feet, or in this case from London, just over our heads. “A rare species of orchid believed to have... read more
Plants of the Month: That’s gotta be a weed?
Plant(s) of the Month: That’s gotta be a weed, doesn’t it? Well….. You know how it goes, you go wandering through the bush and see a plant which just doesn’t fit in, which just by the general look of it you just know it’s gotta be a weed. So you reach down and…. NO!... read more
Plant of the Month: Australian Toadflax
(Thesium australe) When most people think of endangered species they think of something like the Wollemi Pine, tall, majestic and hidden away in a remote valley in the wilderness but in truth most of our endangered plant species are small, nondescript and in places... read more
Plant of the Month: Ribbon Gum
Twenty third of March is National Eucalypt Day so with that in mind it’s time for another gum PotM. This month’s PotM is the Ribbon Gum (Eucalyptus viminalis), there’s a couple of them growing near the bridge at Bunnan on the Scone-Merriwa Road, I’ve looked at these... read more
Weed of the Month: Khaki Weed (Alternanthera pungens)
I hate Khaki Weed, I really do, so much so that at one stage I had it almost eliminated from the footpaths of the small village I live in and despite my slackness over the past couple of years numbers are still low and just the other week had to spray the footpath... read more
Plant of the Month: What’s in a name? Hard Quandong
(Elaeocarpus obovatus) Also known as Blueberry Ash, Whitewood, Grey Carabeen, Freckled Oliveberry and Grey Carrobeen, despite the plethora of names it is not related to the other Quandongs (Santalum spp.), Ashes (Mountain Ash, Red Ash, Claret Ash, Himalayan Ash) or... read more
Weed of the Month: Coolatai grass Hyparrhenia hirta
Regional Priority Weed Objective – ASSET PROTECTION An invasive drought, fire and herbicide tolerant tussock forming perennial grass. It is found in all Australian states and territories. The main infestations on the East coast were south-eastern Queensland,... read more
Plant of the Month: Choccie Lily
Mmmm Chocolate (Lilies!) One of the most anticipated Spring arrivals in woodland and forest areas in this area is the blooming of the Chocolate Lilies (Dichopogon fimbriatus) not only for the attractive purple flowers but also for the chocolate scent they have. While... read more
PlantNET Search – Find your local plants
I’m giving away trade secrets here but apart from identifying plants one of our common requests is for species lists of what grows in an area, or what is suitable to plant in an area. Some areas we know quite well and will be able to give a reasonable list just off... read more