Words Matter

Native, Indigenous, Endemic - What do they Really Mean?
Native: This word actually means nothing without a qualifier. However, we Australians usually assume that used alone, it means “native to Australia” unless otherwise specified. That works fine, most of the time.

Not always, though. At the recent Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers, one of the owners of a prize-winning garden was very proud of one of his “natives”. Unfortunately for botanical accuracy and understanding, the species is a native of Mexico.

Sturt's Desert Pea, (Swainsona formosa). A plant native to Australia, grown by a few very skilled gardeners in Toowoomba, but not local native, indigenous, or endemic to Toowoomba.

Indigenous: It actually means exactly the same as “native”. (Look it up in a dictionary if you don’t believe me!) Like “native” it is only really unambiguous if used with a qualifier like “indigenous to such and such a place or area”.  The purpose of language is to communicate effectively, and where clarity is lacking, misunderstandings occur, and the word has been poorly chosen. There has been a creeping tendency to use “indigenous” as though it means something different from “native”, and to use it to mean “locally native”. 

Unfortunately, the widespread and enthusiastic recommendation by TV shows and magazines of “indigenous” plants has led to a belief that in some not quite understood way it means “better than ordinary natives”. I ran into this meaning not long ago when a particular customer in a volunteer nursery, where we  grow natives local to the Toowoomba Region, was baffled that we couldn’t supply her with the plant we wanted. She had seen it on TV, and the presenter had definitely described it as “indigenous” - and doesn’t this nursery specialise in indigenous plants? Further enquiry told us that the TV show had been about a Melbourne garden, but the customer seemed to have trouble understanding why this should make any kind of difference to our nursery.

Yet another misunderstanding of the word “indigenous”, with regard to plants, is that it must have something to do with traditional plant use by Australia’s first peoples. Some who understand it this way say they have no particular interest in “indigenous” plants for their garden because they don't want bush tucker, while others are very surprised to discover that the "indigenous" plant they have carefully chosen does not actually have any known traditional Aboriginal use.

Using a big word instead of plain English is not always an improvement!

Weeping Red Bottlebrush (Melaleuca viminalis). This street tree in Crows Nest is locally native to the Crows Nest and Toowoomba, being commonly found growing naturally in our local creeks and waterlines, (but not "endemic")

Endemic: This is another problematical one, and once again it is meaningless unless the area to which a particular plant is endemic is specified.

It means “native to the specified area ONLY”. That is “not found growing naturally anywhere else”. I have seen, over the last ten years or so, a trend to use it in the cheerful belief that it just means “locally native”, regardless of whether the same species grows naturally in other places. There is even a very embarrassing sign - oh so beautifully and expensively made - in the Toowoomba Botanic Garden, which uses the word in this incorrect manner. Its so-called “Endemic garden” contains a number of plants native to the Toowoomba region, but not a single endemic!

This a very unfortunate misuse of the word, because it lets people overlook the fact that there are plants which are genuinely endemic to the Toowoomba Region. They are often endemic to quite small areas, often under threat from the modern problems of clearing and environmental destruction, and badly in need of protection. 

If we don’t use the words correctly, how can we expect our governments and private landholders to take action to protect the most vulnerable of our very special Australian flora?

Grace's Wattle. (Acacia lithgowiae). This beautiful, showy small tree is endemic to a small area of about one kilometre square, in Kumbarilla State Forest. It is in the process of being given an official classification, which will eventually acknowledge its extreme rarity. Meanwhile it is under threat. Our State Government's process for giving the gas industry permission to destroy large areas of State Forest is something that operates much more efficiently than our State Governments process for recognising rare plants and giving them protection.

 

 Mistletoes of the Toowoomba and the Condamine Catchment.

A New Field Guide, $15.00.

As one of the authors of this new book, I find that the most common comment, when I tell people about it is something like "does the book tell us how to deal with them?"

My response, which is along the lines of "they are such a valuable part of our ecology that it is best to just leave the poor things alone" seems to surprise at least some people. Yet it is true that for the most part, mistletoes do no harm at all to their host trees. Healthy trees can outlive generations of them. The book does, however, tell you under what circumstances a mistletoe might do harm, as well as how they enrich their home ecosystems.

It also describes all 31 mistletoe species found in our district.

 

A useful resource for those who love, and want to know more about, our local flora, it's a steal at a mere $15.00!

See https://www.condaminecountry.com/ for this and other publications by the Condamine Country Group.

    

Field Guide to our Local Wattles - SOLD OUT

 

 The Condamine Country Plant Group has plans for a second edition. 

 The 2024 edition Field Guide contained descriptions of  84 of the wattle species found in the Catchment. The new edition will include several more species.

 Watch this space!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Condamine River rises in the Main Range above Killarney, flows through Warwick and past Cecil Plains, to end where it flows into the Balonne River west of Chinchilla. Its Catchment is a large area with richly varied ecosystems, from the red soil  of Toowoomba and the Range, through the rich black cracking clay soil regarded as classic Darling Downs Country, and on to the mixed alluvial soils, interspersed with well-drained ridges, of the Chinchilla district. The sandstone-based soil around Goombungee forms a special enclave rich in wattles, as also does traprock soil in the Durikai State Forest Area near Karara. Yet other different wattles can be found on the granite soil south of Warwick, a section of the catchment which adjoins the well-known Granite Belt of the Southern Downs.

 

 

 

 

 

Each wattle species is given a full-page description, with photographs to help with identification.

 We have found that there are two features of the book which our readers particularly appreciate.

The first is the simple key in the front of the book, which makes it easy to find the section that matches the plant they are trying to identify.

The second is that, where a wattle that looks right has been found by leafing through the appropriate section, users of the book may sometimes find that there are  two or three wattles that look rather alike. In this case, further help is offered with a "similar to" paragraph at the bottom of the page.

The books can be bought through our new website at https://www.condaminecountry.com/

The site is a bit slow to open up. Please be patient! (We are plant enthusiasts, not computer experts. We are working on it!)

 

Plants of South-east 

Toowoomba's Bushland Parks

 

 

  Released this week, the book contains photos and descriptions of 112 of Toowoomba's own local native plants. 

 

  Each plant is given a page in the book, together with a         concise description aimed at helping readers to feel confident about identifying the plants they find in the parks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The same plant species occur in a wide area around Toowoomba, so would be useful to people wanting to know what the plants are, that occur on their own properties, and our local roadsides, nature reserves etc.

The book is written and edited by the Condamine Country Plant Group, a group of four people, of whom the author of this blogsite is one. Our aim is to produce books which help local people to become familiar with our own native plants.

It was printed thanks to funding organised by the Friends of the Escarpment Parks, and can be bought from them. They can be contacted through their website at https://fep.org.au/

Should we ban Cunjevoi?

 Alocasia brisbanensis

Yesterday a petition was lodged with the Queensland Parliament, to ban this plant. 

https://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Work-of-the-Assembly/Petitions/Petition-Details?id=4006

The wording of the ban requests:  the total ban of the sale, keeping, growing or removing from our rainforests Cunjevoi or Alocasia brisbanensis, Alocasia macrorrhizos plants across the state.

Cunjevoi is a well-known plant to all those who walk in the rainforests of Queensland and New South Wales. The juice of the leaves is often recommended as a cure for the sting of the giant stinging tree.

 

It is also often grown in gardens, and public parks, because it is beautiful. I see on the internet that Bunnings offers it for sale. 

The petition states: "It has been found that even a small snippet of the plant could kill an adult, child or pet in under 30 minutes." It also claims that even whippersnipping near the plants has dire effects on the person wielding the tool.

These claims are obviously overstated, but is cunjevoi really dangerous?

Yes. The book "Australia's poisonous plants, fungi and Cyanobacteria", by Ross Mckenzie, CSIRO Publishing, 2012, is one of the best guides to poisonous plants in Australia. 

It awards Cunjevoi 1 (one) star for degree of danger.

But is it really THAT dangerous? To put it in proportion, compare it with Narcissus (daffodils and jonquils), which rate 2 stars for degree of danger. Logic suggests that an even smaller "snippet" of daffodil must have the deadly effect described above.

SO SHOULD WE BAN DAFFODILS?

Well yes, if we are to be consistent, we should be regarding this as a more urgent matter than banning Cunjevoi. All Narcissus (daffodils and jonquils) rate 3 stars for weight of evidence of toxicity, and 2 stars for degree of danger.

In fact, if we wanted to get the job done properly, we should comb through that CSIRO book, and get a lot of plants banned. There are more than seven thousand of them that qualify for one star or more. If we follow the logic of banning Cunjevoi, they should all be banned. Just to name a random few, they include grevilleas,  pine trees, maples, daisy bushes, buttercups, gingko trees, pigface, oleanders, vinca, Hoya, citrus (leaves), tomatoes, heliotropes, box hedges, St John's wort, lupins, ferns of all kinds, and so on, and on, and on... 

Many of them are more dangerous than Cunjevoi. Rhubarb leaves, for example, rate 3 stars for degree of danger. So does Deiffenbachia, a plant which is also advertised for sale in Bunnings. It is an ornamental plant with leaves somewhat resembling Cunjevoi. Green tomatoes and tomato leaves rate 2 stars. Parsley, mint, and quite a few other popular culinary herbs rate 1 star. They are safe in small amounts - and so, probably is cunjevoi - but don't try it!

So why has Cunjevoi, a mere 1-star plant, been singled out for special treatment? It is hard to be certain. I suspect a lack of serious knowledge or research by the petitioner might be the cause.

The petitioner, Gary Duffy, a former One Nation candidate, is clearly a man who takes his responsibilities as a citizen seriously and wants to see wrongs righted wherever he sees them. He has made news previously with other petitions, including a petition to ban off-premise billboards (Dec 2022), and one to have repairs to the Brisbane Valley Highway, in the area where he lives, carried out to a higher standard (Aug 2023). Now he is trying for a ban on Cunjevoi.

I support his view, but only to the extent that I think it is very important that we should all be aware that any plants in our gardens, that are not normally eaten as food, might well be poisonous. This can also apply to parts of plants where other parts of the same plant are well known to be safe to eat.

But as for banning Cunjevoi?

Not really. 

Bottlejong

 Brachychiton x turgidulus

  This year is being a great year for Brachychitons. Toowoomba is aflame with Flame Trees (B. acerifolius). The large, felty pink flowers of Lacebarks (B. discolor) are looking wonderful where they have been planted along the new England Highway at Highfields, and where they still occasionally occur in the remnants of their natural rainforest habitat at Highfields and Gowrie Junction. Locally native Kurrajongs (B. populneus) are heavily in flower along the roadsides, particularly between Goombungee and Meringandan, where their nodding bells are inconspicuous until you slow down for a closer look. And our other local native brachychitons, the Bottle Trees are displaying their creamy-white flowers. The main street in Goombungee is a good place to look for them. There are also many beautiful Brachychiton hybrids, produced and marketed by those clever people in the horticulture industry, to be seen in gardens of the district.

Less familiar is the naturally occurring hybrid between kurrajongs and bottle trees. It occurs often enough to have been given its own name, Brachychiton x turgidulus, and it occurs in places where its parent trees can be found somewhere nearby. We call it a bottlejong.

Bottlejong

Its flowers take some of the characteristics of their parents. Their redness comes from the kurrajong, but they are usually redder. Compare this photo  with the kurrajongs below.

 

Kurrajong. Minimally red. Note the shorter lobes.

 

Kurrajong, tree 2. Greener flowers, with a red centre.

Kurrajong, tree 3. Strongly red flowers

 

The white backs of the Bottlejong,together with their subtle hairiness, come from the bottle tree parent. The flowers of bottle trees also vary naturally a little both in their hairiness and their colour. They can be white or cream, and may have some red speckling..

Bottle tree. A very white flower.

A different bottle tree. A hairier flower, with a few red speckles.

 In shape Bottlejongs are part-way between parents, with lobes longer than the kurrajong, but shorter than the bottle tree, in relation to the overall length of the flower. Note also the different colour of the flower back of the hybrid, in relation to its kurrajong parent. 

Kurrajong. Rounded bell, green on back.

Bottlejong, wider flowers, with whitish, V-shaped back.

The trunk of the Bottlejong is stouter at the base than the trunk of a true kurrajong (for which it is often mistaken) but not as stout as a bottle tree trunk. "Turgid" means swollen, and it is the wide trunk that distinguishes the hybrid from  kurrajong, and has given Brachychiton x turgidulus its name.

Wide flowered Kurrajong, Brachychiton x turgidulus

 

Kurrajong, Brachychiton populneus. Note the straight trunk.

Bottle tree, Brachychiton rupestris.

Because they are so often mistaken for kurrajongs until they reach the age of flowering, which may take 20 or 30 years, young hybrids go unnoticed. We are uncertain whether their leaf-shape has the same variability as their parents.  Like its parents, it usually drops most of its leaves before flowering. In its best flowering years, such as this one, the leaf-drop may be complete, with new leaves coming in as the flowers begin to die.

I only know, personally, of a few of these trees. I have been told that they are quite widespread around Toowoomba and the Darling Downs, however, so would be interested to hear from any readers who  are aware of this interesting plant.

x

 

 

 “Yellowtop” or “Fireweed”?

Which yellow daisy is which?

Senecio brigalowensis, BRIGALOW YELLOWTOP (Native, annual)
Senecio pinnatifolius var. pinnatifolius PERENNIAL YELLOWTOP (Native, biennial or perennial)
Senecio madagascariensis*, Madagascar fireweed (Non-native, annual or biennial, a serious weed)

The countryside around Toowoomba is ablaze with yellow daisies at the moment. There are three species involved, but from a distance, the plants seem almost identical.
To some people, they are all “fireweeds” and are treated as equally undesirable.
Two of the three species are native, however, and are important hosts for some beautiful and  increasingly rare native insects.  (See http://toowoombaplants2008.blogspot.com/2017/06/mountain-katydid.html or search for Mountain Katydid, Acripeza reticulata).
So which yellow daisy is which?
It is quite easy to distinguish Madagascar fireweed from the other two species by the shape of its leaves. All Senecios have leaves of a rather variable size and shape, but if you are trying to tell one yellowtop/fireweed from the others, look for the leaves around the middle of a fully-grown plant. They will still be variable, but you can get a good idea of the most common leaf shape.
The leaves of Madagascar fireweed (Senecio madagascariensis*), are spear-head shaped, with teeth, as below:

 

The leaves of both the native species have long thin lobes, which gives them a “whiskery” look.

The leaves and leaf-lobes of Perennial yellowtop (Senecio pinnatifolius var. pinnatifolius) tend to be narrower than those of Brigalow yellowtop (Senecio brigalowensis), but there is some overlap so this is not a reliable guide. If the “whiskers” of the leaves have any very tiny teeth on the edges, you have Brigalow yellowtop, but many brigalow yellowtops have no teeth - just the long, thin, thready-looking lobes as above.
The most reliable way of distinguishing between the two natives is to count the bracts (not the petals). The bracts are the tiny green strips which make up the green cup in which the daisy flowerhead sits. You may need a good pair of reading glasses to count them, and at first though this seems like a hopeless task. 

 

However brigalow yellowtop (Senecio brigalowensis) has more than 18 bracts and in practice there are usually about 22 of them. Our local (Darling Downs) perennial yellowtops (Senecio pinnatifolius var. pinnatifolius) have only about 13. Really, by the time you are half-way round you are going to know whether the full count is going to be more like 13 or 22, so it’s not that hard after all. Can you see, by the photo above, that you are looking at perennial yellowtop? Enlarge the photo and you can see only 6 or so bracts on this side. There is not going to be room for a total of 22 altogether, so you hardly need to count them all the way round! The bracts of the perennial yellowtop also tend to be purple-tipped, but this is not always a reliable indicator.

Perennial yellowtops flower later than brigalow yellowtops, and don't tend to produce such a crowd of plants. Their petals are also somewhat longer and slimmer. Once you know both plants you will find you can distinguish them at a glance.

MADAGASCAR FIREWEED Senecio madagascariensis*
Poisonous to horses, cattle, pigs and poultry.

If you have this one, you should get rid of it as soon as you can. It can have SIX GENERATIONS of seed per season. (Native yellowtops breed at a more civilised rate, only producing one generation of seed per season.) You can see why a few Madagascar fireweed plants might turn into a rather big problem rather quickly.
To make it worse, if you pull out plants with flowers but no seed on them, any flowers can mature and produce viable seed while they are drying out in your garbage bin. The seeds have fluffy tops designed to blow in the wind, so those plants that you thought were safely disposed of will spill seed even as your friendly helpful garbo is tipping your rubbish into the truck. The moral of the story is that all Madagascar fireweed flowers, as well as seeds, should be carefully placed into a sealed plastic bag for disposal.

BRIGALOW FIREWEED Senecio brigalowensis
Poisonous to horses, cattle, pigs and poultry.
Every few years in spring we have a big flush of these flowers, and this year is a biggie. Our paddocks and some road verges are sheets of yellow. They do like disturbed land. If you want to see a really good display, drive around the northern edge of Toowoomba on the new bypass road. You will notice how the road verges are a mass of colour, but very few plants have spread to the other side of the fence. The same can happen between one paddock and the next, which tells you some things about those paddocks’ different histories or use patterns. Heavily grazed paddocks are more prone to a big flush of yellowtops.
The curious thing is that it is only in some years that we have these big flushes, and it has only been happening here since 2007. Nobody is sure why, but it probably has something to do with our changing climate.
Unless you (or you neighbours) have horses or cattle, these lovely wildflowers can be left alone for you to enjoy, and for small native creatures to feed upon. They are part of our natural Australian environment.
Don’t feed them to the chooks, though.

PERENNIAL FIREWEED (Senecio pinnatifolius var. pinnatifolius Syn Senecio lautus ssp. dissectifolius)
Not regarded as dangerous to livestock.
This plant flowers a little later in the season, and never reaches pest proportions. You will notice it scattered about in paddocks which are grazed by cattle, with no resulting problems. In a well-managed (not overgrazed) paddock, such as the one in the photo below, they are not a problem. Perhaps they taste nasty, so cattle avoid them unless they are in a situation such as a stockyard or stock route, where heavy grazing leaves them with little choice of fodder.

They are a local wildflower to celebrate. What a pity that the issue of whether or not to let them grow is so confused by their weedy relatives.