NATIVE or AUSTRAL STORK’S-BILL

(Pelargonium australe)

(Photos: C. Schultz, flowers; a plant at the end of summer)

Another of the little herbaceous plants, this is rare around Cape Jervis. It will only grow about ankle-high, with leaves about 3cm across, so it could be easy to miss. However, it will be flowering over late spring and summer, so watch for the clusters of pale pink flowers then. They will have purple-red veins to help you spot them! The clusters sit above the plant, so that’s another help. Notice how the flower petals separate out as a group of two at the top, then three below. This is a typical feature of pelargoniums. The leaves are pale green with velvety hairs; leaf stems (petioles) are long. The roots of these butterfly-attracting little pelargoniums were an indigenous food source. They like coastal dunes and arid areas, so if you have sandy, free-draining soil, you might like to try these. Prune them hard after flowering to encourage new growth.

SOFT CRANE’S-BILL

or DOVE’S-FOOT

(Geranium molle)

  (Photos: E. Cousins: flower; C. Schultz, plant)

We were confused by this one when we first saw it; for a little while we thought it was a non-weedy native geranium, called Geranium solanderi (Australian crane’s-bill). What gave it away though was a good look at the leaf and flower shapes…and the fact that it did, quite literally, grow like a weed!! The soft crane’s-bill has leaves with a circular outline and lots of lobes not deeply divided (incisions go only a short way towards the leaf stem). The leaves of the Australian crane’s-bill, in contrast, have 5-7 lobes, deeply divided, with each lobe having 3 smaller lobes. How else will you know the weedy one? Stems have long, soft white hairs growing along them (‘molle’ is from the latin for ‘softly hairy’). Also, check out the flowers in spring-summer. They occur in pairs. As you can see in the photo above, flowers have five deeply notched pink-mauve petals around a cluster of dark stamens. The second photo above illustrates how small the flowers are in relation to the leaves… the flowers are only about 8-10mm in diameter. Flowers are followed by fruits with a long beak, the crane’s bill.

KINGSCOTE MALLEE

(Eucalyptus rugosa)

(Photos: C. Schultz, buds and leaves; E. Cousins, flowers; C. Schultz, trunk )

Uncommon and classed as vulnerable at Cape Jervis, this eucalypt rarely tops a couple of metres in height here, though it will grow to about 10 m on Kangaroo Island. At Cape Jervis, they are stunted, multi-stemmed, sprawling mallee trees while on KI they can be more upright with a single stem. ‘rugosa’ is derived from the Latin ‘rugosos’ for ‘wrinkled’, so think of rough … but for the fruits and buds, not the bark! The bark is smooth and creamy-pink. White flowers appear in clusters from spring to autumn but these are not particularly showy. The buds are interesting though, as are the fruits. The buds form a group on a flattened stem, each bud on a small stalk or no stalk at all. Their caps have ridges on them, giving the roughness. These caps are also slightly flattened, and shorter than the base. The fruit are also slightly ribbed.

KHAKI WEED

 (Alternanthera pungens)

(Photos: https://weeds.brisbane.qld.gov.au/weeds/khaki-weed, sighted 4-7-18)

Thankfully, we have not seen this weed on our own site at Cape Jervis, but it has been spotted at Fishery Beach, and we have certainly seen it on other sites. It likes to invade lawns so keep an eye out in yours, because it is hard to get rid of! A low growing plant, it has ground-hugging runners forming a dense mat, as each runner travels up to 60cm. The stems are reddish-green and a little hairy. New roots are produced at stem nodes, meaning patches of the plant can spread out quickly. Tight clusters of greenish-yellow flowers are produced at leaf junction, as can be seen in the photo above. These are fairly inconspicuous, but as the flowers mature into fruits, parts become really hard and you will notice them then, because you will be stepping on prickly burrs! Another thing you might notice from the photo above is that the paired leaves differ in size…one is a lot larger than the other. Each has a short stalk, a few hairs, an oval shape, and prominent veins on the underside. If you see this plant, let the Dept of Environment & Water know, as it is a declared and notifiable weed. Be careful you don’t carry any of the burrs off on your clothing…burrs (and hence seeds) are easily dispersed when caught in animal fur, on clothing or tyres.

ONE-SPINE SALTBUSH

or GREY BINDYI

(Sclerolaena uniflora)

(Photos: C. Schultz, stem, fruit with horns; Cape Jervis)

There are both one-spine and two-spine saltbushes, which are very similar except for the shape of those horns you see on the fruit in the second photo. The ones pictured are just that…little horns on those lumps. In the two-spine saltbush, they are longer and spikier, more like spines than horns! Like a lot of Cape Jervis plants, the one-spine saltbush is about ankle-high. It is a sprawling perennial, with grey-green hairy leaves crowded along the stems. The leaves are about 1cm long and narrow, and possibly flat on one side. As you can see from the photos, the leaves are really fleshy, or succulent. Yellow-red, single flowers appear in October, to be followed by those hairy horned fruits. The spines are only about 2mm long, and one (or both) might not even be there. There should be a lump though, even if you can’t see the spine.

FALSE CAPER

 (Euphorbia terracina)

(Photos: Leaves and flowers http://www.pestandweeds.com/weed-profiles/weed-herbs/false-caper/; sighted 13-6-18; Mass of false capers – the red tinge in the “middle ground”, photo  E. Cousins, Sorata St )

Since the seeds of this perennial germinate over autumn-spring, you will see new ones emerging now. The false caper is about thigh high. Older plants have 4-5 erect, pale green leafy stems emerging from a single stem at the base.  The leaves alternating up these stems are fairly spread out. They can be up to 65mm long, 2-10mm wide! They don’t have petioles (little stems attaching the leaf to the main stems). Up to 6 flower stems branch out at the end of the main stems with 5 leaves just under the division. The flower stems can branch again and again, and under each fork you will spot two egg-shaped leaves then a cup-shaped cluster of 8-15 male flowers with a single female flower. The flower head is yellow-green. Watch for them from July-October. Next season, new stems can form from the old crown. Small or isolated patches can be hand-weeded. There is a strong tap root with horizontal laterals. However, as with some of the other Euphorbias, this one can exude a corrosive milky sap when you break the stem so be careful if hand pulling…wear gloves. Exploding seed capsules can send seeds several metres away so try to control weeds BEFORE flowers appear!

DRYLAND TEA-TREE

(Melaleuca lanceolata)

(Photos: C. Schultz. Leaves and insect-attracting flowers)

Recently we featured Totem Poles, Melaleuca decussata. The Dryland Tea-tree is another of the pretty melaleucas at the Cape. Both have a similar growth habit: lovely compact shrubs with elongated leaves about 1cm long. The clusters of flowers differ though in colour and shape, with the Dryland Tea-tree having white flowers, not forming the tight purple cylinder of the totem pole. Also their leaves are placed alternately, rather than opposite each other, along the rough-barked stems. And the fruit are smooth and spherical, (not like the little cups built into the stems of the totem pole!) Plant one of each maybe…the totem poles flower spring-summer, the dryland tea-tree in summer-autumn. The dryland tea-tree is a really important habitat shrub as it provides nectar when not much else is flowering. Check out all the insects on the flowers!

PIG’S EARS

(Cotyledon orbiculata)

(Photo: E. Cousins; plant on knoll above ferry terminal, Cape Jervis)

No, there are not a lot of these plants growing wild around Cape Jervis. We only know of this one outside of gardens in the area. We thought we would use it though as our Weed of the Month, because it illustrates a recurring theme: a weed is a plant growing where it shouldn’t be, and garden plants can become weeds if they escape the garden! This succulent has grey-green leaves that are rounded, with a slight tip. There is a distinctive red line around the edge of the leaves. The red tubular flowers hang down from the top of spikes that stand out above the leafy part of the plant.  The ones in the photo above were on their last legs, hence their brown, not red, colour! Earlier in the season, they would have attracted birds and bees to their nectar. A lovely contrast plant in the garden, good in sun or shade, and with little rainfall… just please make sure it stays in your garden, and doesn’t escape into areas of native vegetation!

LEAFLESS CHERRY or BALLART

(Exocarpos aphyllus)

(Photos: C. Schultz, Cape Jervis)

We were pretty impressed with ourselves in April, 2017, when we found this specimen of the leafless cherry at Cape Jervis. It is a local plant listed as ‘vulnerable’ and so it was good to see about 10 plants in the vicinity looking quite healthy. Part of the sandalwood family (of which the quandong is a member), this is a semi-parasitic shrub to 3.5m, needing the roots of a host tree. As you can see, it is much-branched, with no leaves. The grey-green branches are rigid, and often come from the stems almost at right angles (‘divaricate’). Any flowers are likely to appear from July on; these are very small, and appear in clusters or spikes, just 2-4mm long. The fruits look like little domed ‘hats’, 7-8mm in diameter.

BROAD-LEAF COTTON BUSH

(Gomphocarpus cancellatus)

This woody weed from South Africa grows to about 1 metre high, and competes with natives for space, nutrients and water. It has escaped cultivation as an ornamental, and has invaded many reserves and national parks. We never worried about this weed too much on our reserve at Cape Jervis in the past, but it has definitely become more widespread. So lately we have been more active in removing it. The plant seed is spread by wind and water; its sap can be irritating or toxic to some people, so use gloves when dealing with infestations. Hand pull small plants; use cut-and-swab or drill-and-fill techniques to poison large ones. If infestations are kept under control, the cotton bush does bring one benefit. Over the winter, you’ll notice the plant has many white-purple flowers…and often plenty of caterpillars, devouring the soft leaves and stems. These are the larvae of the Monarch butterfly. The Monarch is not truly an Australian native (though a resident for hundreds of years!), but apparently the larvae of the Lesser Monarch, which IS an Australian native butterfly, also uses this bush as a food source!