FEATHERTOP

(Pennisetum villosum)

(Photos: C. Schultz, Cape Jervis)

This is a tufted grass, up to 1 m tall, on the S.A. environmental weed list. The leaves are narrow, mostly hairless, and droopy. Where the leaf sheath meets the leaf blade is a ring of hairs, like a collar. The spiky seed-heads are up to 12cm in length, composed of long, feathery bristles. They are  greenish-white when young, fading to white, cream then a straw colour. The flower head is made up of lots of little spikelets, surrounded in turn by long whitish bristles. It is these bristles that give the plant its feathery appearance. The seeds, with their bristles, are dispersed by the wind, or carried on animals, clothing, vehicles, etc. This weed is similar to another weed, Fountain grass (Cenchus or Pennisetum setaceum). If you do like This is a tufted grass, up to 1 m tall, on the S.A. environmental weed list. The leaves are narrow, mostly hairless, and droopy. Where the leaf sheath meets the leaf blade is a ring of hairs, like a collar. The spiky seed-heads are up to 12cm in length, composed of long, feathery bristles. They are  greenish-white when young, fading to white, cream then a straw colour. The flower head is made up of lots of little spikelets, surrounded in turn by long whitish bristles. It is these bristles that give the plant its feathery appearance. The seeds, with their bristles, are dispersed by the wind, or carried on animals, clothing, vehicles, etc. This weed is similar to another weed, Fountain grass (Cenchus or Pennisetum setaceum). If you do like their feathery effect though, try planting Cenchus advena…this is a nonseeding hybrid, so it won’t become invasive!

Bringing back the Glossies: when will the plan become a reality? Hopefully in the next few years! Glossy black cockatoos are fussy buggers. They only eat the seed pods of the drooping she-oak, Allocasaurina verticillata. We had a visit in April from two researchers, Karleah and Mike, from the KI Glossy Black-Cockatoo Recovery Program. They were impressed with the extensive she-oak plantings around the Cape that started with Greening Australia ≈ 17 years ago. Other groups have contributed including COOTs, Cape Jervis & Delamere Progress Association and CJCCG. Keep your eyes and ears open; for the distinctive “chewings” at the base of trees, and their noisy, creaky, wheezy calls (http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Calyptorhynchus-lathami. Will you be the first person at the Cape to spot one?

Photos R Tipper. Glossy black facts – Natural Resources South Australia

Next get together – Tree Planting, Jun 5 & 6 2015. Training & cake provided.

We welcome new volunteers.  Contact Carolyn Schultz 0423 213 481.

No tree branches – No worries! I’ll just use this garden stake to sun myself … thinks this adult bearded dragon (left photo). What a treat to see as we were doing a site visit on the “lower loop” near the start of the Heysen Trail / ferry terminal. The other lizard is also a bearded dragon, but a very young one, that I found while removing weedy gazanias from a remnant patch of scrub containing Lomandra effusa (scented mat rush) in my garden. Rushes, grasses and sedges provide great habitat (food and shelter) for lizards so it was not surprising that I would find one in this patch. We are including lots of different species of these important food and shelter plants, so we should start to see more and more lizards over the next few years.

Photos C. Schultz: Adult bearded dragon, juvenile bearded dragon

Next get together, 11 & 12 Apr 2015. Training & cake provided. We welcome new volunteers.

Contact Carolyn Schultz 0423 213 481.

CAUSTIC WEED

(Chamaesyce or Euphorbia drummondii)

(Photos: E. Cousins; growth habit, close up of leaf, tap root)

We recently found caustic weed on our lower site at Cape Jervis. If you have found it in your garden, you will know it is a persistent little sucker. It is an annual or short-lived perennial herb with a deep taproot. Smooth, thin red stems fan out from the centre and hug the ground; these stems can grow up to 20cm long, and can exude a corrosive, milky sap when damaged.  The oval-shaped leaves are blue-green with a reddish-purple blotch. They grow in pairs with very short stalks, opposite each other along the stems. The tiny flowers have no petals; they grow in small groups that are composed of one female flower surrounded by several male flowers; even so, the entire flower head is fairly inconspicuous. Seeds can germinate at any time, with the biggest flush in spring; then the plants grow quickly over summer.

Want to help protect your garden and the Cape from woody weeds? One  great way is to learn to recognise the young seedlings of Acacia cyclops and olives. In their first 6 months of life both are easily pulled out by hand. Cyclops grows quickly and can reach > 1 m x 1 m in 1-2 years, setting seed in 2-3 years. Cyclops and olives often germinate in the shade of shrubs such as Leucopogon (coastal beard heath) or in the ground covers muntries (Kunzea pomifera). I recently found 10 seedling in one old muntries, near Fleurieu Ave. Imagine how different the view would look in 2-3 years if they were left to grow. The easiest way to get good at recognising cyclops and olive seedlings, is to learn by doing. We  are happy to show you how..

Photos C. Schultz: Leucopogon + cyclops (circles); 10 cyclops hidden in muntries

Next get together, 11 & 12 Apr 2015. Training & cake provided.

We welcome new volunteers.  Contact Carolyn Schultz 0423 213 481.

COASTAL GALENIA

(Galenia pubescens)

(Photos: E. Cousins; growth habit, close-up of leaves and flowers)

There are some patches of coastal galenia near the start of the Heysen Trail at Cape Jervis. They occur as flat, sprawling patches about 1-2 metres across. The oval-shaped leaves are very small; like the stems, newer ones are covered in fine hairs, which you might be able to see in the second photo. You’ll also see tiny flowers at the leaf junctions. These are white, possibly with a pink tinge at the start, but turn yellow as they age. The leaves are normally a sage-green colour, but summer stress has changed the ones shown to a reddish-brown in places! Galenia is a common environmental weed around the coast of SA. It likes sandy soils and disturbed sites… in the photo above, the clumps are on a path!  It can be difficult to eradicate when established.

How Atlas of Living Australia helped us!  We got a tip off about a “new” plant called lemon beauty-heads (aka Calocephalus citreus). However I could not find it on my own, so the group decided to get help from Atlas of Living Australia (ALA, www.ala.org.au) a collaborative resource from CSIRO and 16 partners.

ALA informed us that the plant was “On slopes of coast reserve 300 m N of Cape Jervis lighthouse”. Imagine our surprise when we stopped not far from the top and Liz asked “is this it”? Sure was, and we have photos to prove it!

ALA shows a clickable dot on a map of Australia for every plant specimen collected by the major botanical gardens, citizen scientists and others. It also contains info about animal, insects & microbes.

Photos C. Schultz: Liz taking photos, Lemon beauty-heads

Next get together, 7 & 8  Feb 2015. Training & cake provided.

We welcome new volunteers.  Contact Carolyn Schultz 0423 213 481.