COAST SILVER WATTLE (WIRILDA)

Acacia uncifolia, previously Acacia retinodes

 (Photo: E. Cousins, Cape Jervis; foliage, flower cluster.)

This acacia is a good one for attracting birds, butterflies and other insects to your garden. You can’t see this in the photos above, but the trunk of this upright tree is rough, and dark brown in colour. What you can see though are the long thin leaves, with a central vein. These leaves can be up to 20cm long, though the ones on this Cape Jervis specimen were much shorter. They are a green to grey-green colour, and contrast well with the creamy yellow flower clusters. The flowers form balls which then form in clusters along a common stalk.  Like the leaves, the following seed pods can also be long… up to 14cm! The tree produces a gum, which Indigenous peoples softened in water, then ate for relief from chest pain.

LAVENDER

(Lavandula species)

(Photos: E. Cousins; 3 small plants along a walking trail, leaf and flower of French Lavender)

Hardy lavenders are plentiful in our gardens, particularly the English and French varieties. They may have self-seeded in your garden, which is great, but they also self-seed in bushland, with seeds carried on boots, or by wind, etc… not so great! The first photo above shows three healthy seedlings on the edge of a walking trail, over about 1 metre of path.

Easily identified by their aromatic smell and purple flowers these bushy shrubs grow to about knee high, with a dense habit. The leaves of the French Lavender shown are narrow with many lobes on both sides of the centre rib. Another weedy variety, Topped Lavender, has smooth-edged leaves; their flower spikes are topped with some very obvious purple ‘flags’ at the top. Lovely in gardens, with many uses … we just need to make sure that’s where they stay.

Weeds – some are worse than others – but why?

Our weed of the month for May is not a big threat at Cape Jervis – yet, and maybe never, but we will watch and act if necessary. The worst important weeds for any given area can be different but there are formal processes for classifying weeds. There are 32 weeds that have widespread impact, and are listed as “Weeds of National Significance”, based on their invasiveness, potential for spread and environmental, social and economic impacts (http://www.environment.gov.au/ biodiversity/invasive/weeds/weeds/lists/wons.html). We have two of these on site, bridal creeper and boxthorn. Each state also has its own “Declared Weeds”, that land holders are required to control on their own land (http://www.pir.sa.gov.au/biosecurity /weeds_and_pest_animals/weeds_in_sa). Other weed threats, such as Acacia cyclops are more localised. Woody weeds such as olive and cyclops are a BIG problem in the biodiverse coastal heathlands at the Cape because of their rapid growth and their smothering effect. Come out with us for a few hours and we can show you the benefits of removing these weeds and help you recognise young seedlings so they can be removed before they become a big problem.

Photos: hand-pulled ‘cyclops’ seedlings (E. Cousins); resprouting poisoned olive; a sea of baby olives (C. Schultz).

STIFF CHERRY

(Exocarpus aphyllus)

(Photos: E. Cousins, plant; C. Schultz, close-up of stem, at Cape Jervis)

This plant is from the same family as the quandong (Santalaceae) though you wouldn’t think so from the differences in the fruit or foliage!

‘Aphyllus’ is from the Greek, meaning ‘without leaves’. There are in fact leaves on the thick, rigid branches, but they are TINY (less than 1mm), more like scales!  And expecting a cherry-like fruit or two? Try a small black ovoid (egg-shape) with a squashed creamy-red base (hence ‘Exocarpus’: ‘outside the nut’). Even the yellow flower clusters are small, at less than 4mm. These are present over spring and early summer, and protrude from the branches on short stalks. Tiny leaves, tiny flowers, tiny fruit… yet the olive-green bush can grow over 3.5m tall, with heaps of branches! Although common in many other parts of Australia, it is classed as ‘vulnerable’ on the Fleurieu Peninsula.

PINCUSHION HAKEA

(Hakea laurina)

(Photos: E. Cousins; foliage, young flower and bud; bees on mature flower.)

Such a beautiful flower, and such beautiful foliage! A native of WA, this makes a lovely garden plant…just not so lovely when it escapes into local native bushland! The small bushy tree has flat blue-green leaves, reminiscent of acacias or eucalypts. The edges of the leaves can be tinged with red, while strong vein markings give a striped look so the leaves are fairly distinctive. The autumn and winter flowers though give the plant its common name. On breaking out of their capsules the white protruding stamens are firstly bent, then straighten out like pins from a red base. As you can see from the second photo above, the bees LOVE the nectar these flowers produce (there were more than one dozen of them clustered in that one flower)! Grow one in your own garden, but please, make sure it doesn’t spread elsewhere!

KNOTTY-BUTT PASPALIDUM

(Setaria constricta)

(Photo: E. Cousins, Cape Jervis; habit, stem)

This summer grass was pointed out to us by Corey Jackson (Yankalilla Council/NRM) on our site at Cape Jervis. Why knotty-butt? Well, the rootstock of the grass apparently looks knotted! Why ‘constricta’? Read on! Classified as ‘near threatened’, this grass seems to be doing well this year with the extra rain and cooler temperatures. It grows as a tussock pretty low to the ground at about 20-30cm in height, with a width roughly the same. The grass blades are just 2-3mm wide. The stem bearing the seeds (the ‘inflorescence’) is only about as high as the plant, but much branched. The seeds themselves have no bristles, are about 2-3mm long and with a constriction about ¼ of the way up from the base… so take your magnifier along if you go looking for this one! Possibly a good plant for finches, wrens, and other grass-seed eating birds. Let us know if you see any birds eating the seeds!

WITCHGRASS

(Panicum capillare var. brevifolium)

(Photos: E. Cousins; growth habit, emerging flower head or inflorescence)

The mild, damp summer was kind to weeds as well our ‘good’ plants on site this year. This weedy grass was producing lots of seed when we came across it at our February working bee. It is a hairy, tufted grass…check those hairs out in the second photo! Notice also the slight purple in the plant, and the dominant midrib on the leaf. You might be able to spot all the ribbing on the stems as well. The flower head is very open and wide, at up to 40cm, with many branches. Single spikelets, each containing two flowers (one of which is fertile, the other sterile), adorn these branches. Unlike the leaves and stem, these spikelets aren’t hairy, but rough! Later, the mature flower head, full of seed, breaks off as a single structure, blowing away to spread the seed.

SCENTED MAT RUSH

(Lomandra effusa)

(Photos: E. Cousins, flowering plant; C. Schultz, leaves, leaf tips, Cape Jervis)

Lomandras, or mat rushes, are tufted, normally shin-high perennials with long, narrow, bluey-green leaves that are quite tough. There are several varieties growing at Cape Jervis, but this particular one, the scented mat rush, is probably the easiest to identify. How? Check out the tops of those blade-like leaves… they generally have rabbit ears! That is, instead of a single point at the end of the leaf, there are two sharp tips. It looks like the leaf has been eaten or otherwise damaged! From winter to spring, there are pretty clusters of creamy-white, scented flowers hidden in amongst the foliage. If you look carefully you might see that some plants have different flowers; although the separate male and female plants are hard to tell apart until they have seed. So start looking for these pretty soon in some grasslands near you!!

SYNNOTIA

(Sparaxis villosa)

(Photos: E. Cousins; flower, patch of plants)

When you first see these flowers emerging in spring, you might think they are freesias. The flower has a similar ‘bent tubular’ look to it, and the leaves are flat, shin high and much the same green. However, they are really quite different. Freesia flowers form a group like a pan pipe, with about 5 per stem. Here, though, there is a single flower per stem. The flower itself is almost white in colour, with touches of yellow and purple…another difference. Also, the leaves are less pointy at the top, with a prominent centre vein.

LIMESTONE SPIDER ORCHID

(Jonesiopsis bicalliata)

(Photos: E. Cousins, a patch at Cape Jervis, closer view of the flower)

We were lucky enough to see an extensive colony of these little beauties flowering at Cape Jervis in late August. A spider orchid … but which one? We first thought the veined spider orchid (Caladenia reticulate) but the fringe is white not burgundy. Other contenders were ruled out by size or locations. Not being orchid experts, we searched several books, looked at countless images online and finally got the definitive answer from Rosalie Lawrence, courtesy of SA Natureteers. Rosalie tells us this orchid is widespread in SA, but not the Adelaide Hills. Guess they don’t have the limestone base Cape Jervis has! Among the features distinguishing this from the Arachnorchis (Spiders) family is that there are not two yellow glands at the base of the column, just a yellow glow. Many thanks, Rosalie!!