Narrow-leaf Hop Bush

Dodonaea viscosa subsp. angustifolia
Family: SAPINDACEAE

This sturdy plant is looking pretty in the wild, at present, with its coloured hop-like seed capsules. We find it in on ridges and hillsides in our local black soil areas.
Dodonaea viscosa is a large and very variable genus with seven subspecies, at least three of which grow on the Darling Downs. The various subspecies occur naturally from Africa (where it is known as “sand olive”) through India, Australia and many Pacific islands, to tropical America. The one most often sold in nurseries (often incorrectly labelled “native”) is a purple leaved variety of Dodonaea viscosa subsp. viscosa from New Zealand.
We have three subspecies on the Darling Downs, and they all have the typical “viscose” (shiny-sticky) leaves of the species.

This narrow-leafed subspecies is one of the hardiest to drought, and makes a good garden plant. The showy hops  grow only on the female plants, and many growers prefer to produce their plants from cuttings so as to be sure of having females. They are wind pollinated, and female plants have been known to receive pollen from male plants as much as two kilometres away. They do produce capsules even if not pollinated, but of course in that case they are empty of seeds.
If grown as seedlings, these rather slender plants might be best planted in close groups, which can be thinned down as they mature to flowering age and reveal their sex.
Some growers consider that putting a little mother soil from around a parent plant produces healthier plants. This practice inoculates the soil with soil fungus, and it may be that hop bushes, like many other Australian plants, grow better in association with their favourite fungus. This is something to consider if you are collecting seed, which can be done over the next month or so.


(For more on Dodonaea species, use the white search box at top left of page.)

Getting Bugs

Insect Study at Franke Scrub, Highfields
Saturday 12 October, 9.30am to 5.30pm.

Members of the public are invited to participate in this event, whose aim is to survey the insect population in this remnant of local dry rainforest.


No specialist qualifications or knowledge are needed - just an interest in insects and how they interact with the environment.



Scientists from the Queensland Museum will guide the participants in using various scientific methods of collection, and then (once again with plenty of expert help), we will spend the afternoon in a local hall, sorting the catch into orders.

(This is an activity for adults, though older school students with a particular interest in biology will be considered.)






REGISTRATION IS ESSENTIAL.
To register, please email me (address at right). Only a few places remain, so register soon to be sure of a place.




For more information, see the Franke Scrub Blog at http://frankescrub.blogspot.com.au/

Dogwood

Jacksonia scoparia
Family: FABACEAE
 
I wrote about this plant four years ago, so we don’t really need another blog about it. However, it’s looking so lovely that I couldn’t resist it, and perhaps it’s interesting to compare the present plant with its own self in the older photo.
I love these elegant plants, which light up the bush so reliably at this time every year with their little pea flowers.
 
Note the very obvious red "nectar guides". It is rather curious that they are red, as the most obvious insects using the plant are bees, both native and European. Bees can't see red, but love bright yellow flowers.  Perhaps they see something else in those red streaks, that human eyes miss.
I had some difficulty cultivating my row of them, in a narrow strip between the drive and the property boundary. Young dogwoods are rather whippy and blow about in the wind, so it took a long time for the trunks to become sturdy enough to stop injuring themselves on the fence.
I had to tie and pad them. I don’t like staking plants, as it allows them to grow too tall for the structural strength of their roots. If you look back at the older photo (use the white search box at the top left of this page) you will notice I have lost one of my row of dogwoods since then. It was always weaker than the others, but last year it had reached a level of sturdiness which I thought would let me remove its tie. It might have survived, but the site is at the top of a very windy hill and a storm took it out. This would probably not have happened if the weather had allowed it to sway gently on those roots for another few months, encouraging them develop the strength they needed.
A row of identical plants can be a garden design mistake. There is always the “Alas poor Yorick” element when the row develops a gap.
However, I do enjoy the remaining dogwoods, and look forward to the time when the gaps will be filled with the  a suitable climber.

Hairy Anchor Plant

Discaria pubescens
Family: RHAMNACEAE

I was delighted to find a group of these plants, flowering their little hearts out, in the Allora Mountain Flora and Fauna Reserve today.


I had not seen the plant in the wild before, so it was a treat to have found it looking its annual best, smothered in exquisite little flowers.

The name “anchor plant” comes from its neatly paired anchor-like thorns, which make the species a rather unfriendly one! A specimen growing in Peacehaven Botanic Park at Highfields demonstrates that it can be an attractive, well-shaped plant, nonetheless.



Though somewhat more common down south, this is a rare plant in Queensland and has been classified as “near threatened”, a listing which means it has declined in the wild to the point where it relies on conservation measures to ensure its survival here.

This group of plants, which I believe to be the only plants in this flora and fauna reserve, seemed to consist only of old specimens, most containing a significant proportion of dead wood. The reserve showed signs of being heavily grazed by cattle, and the conclusion that they might be preventing regeneration of new anchor plant seedlings was unavoidable. Conservation can only be effective if the targeted plants are able to produce a new generation. That the reserve might be failing to achieve one of the purposes for which it was declared certainly seemed to be a possibility there.

Lance-leafed Hovea

Hovea lanceolata
Family: FABACEAE
August is purple and gold time, for our local wildflowers. Wattles are everywhere, and the hovea are painting the countryside with patches of purple. I found these growing on a hillside at Gowrie Junction.








The flowers are tiny, but so many are produced that they make a great show.

Despite its name,  this plant’s leaves are often strap-shaped (lorate) rather than lanceolate (a word which means shaped like a lance – wider near the base of the leaf and coming to a point at the tip).
They have the rusty-furry backs which are found in so many species of hovea.

Like most hoveas, they are rather wispy plants, looking their best if grouped in multiples. For gardeners, more plants are easy to create from seed collected in early summer. It needs pre-sowing treatment to break the hard seedcoats. Putting the seeds in a coffee cup and pouring boiling water over them, then leaving them to soak overnight usually does the trick.

Early Nancy

Wurmbea biglandulosa
Family: COLCHICACEAE
I found a large patch of these delightful little lilies in grassy woodland, in the well-watered soil of a creek bed at Gowrie Junction last week.

The purple markings were stronger on some flowers than on others.

A patch can be expected to flower for a period of about three weeks. The plants will produce seed capsules which ripen in November or December, after which they will die back to their underground corms until next winter.
There's not much to the plants - just a few wispy leaves and the flower stem. When not flowering they are very easy to overlook.

 They are frost hardy, but like to be fairly well-watered. This means they are not often seen in our district, with its degraded stream beds.
They can be grown from seed, but it is rarely done, as it takes three years for new little plants to flower for the first time. Before white settlement, the bulbs were an important food plant for the people of the Downs.

COMMON LILLYPILLY

Acmena smithii (Syzygium smithii)
Family: MYRTACEAE
 
This is one of our showiest local native trees. Found in the dry rainforests along the range, it looks spectacular at this time of year when it is laden with purplish pink fruits.

In garden situations, it becomes a medium sized tree (8-10 metres) though it can grow much larger in its native rainforest.  It has dense foliage which (unless trimmed) extends to the ground, making it a good screen plant.
For this purpose it  can be left to grow naturally, or trimmed to make a  large, quick-growing hedge, with flushes of new red leaves stimulated by trimming. In either case, it is a very attractive garden plant.
It has been claimed that it resists frosts to to -7°C (or more). I have some doubts about the frost hardiness of small specimens, and would want to be protecting them in winter if harsh frosts are expected, until they were at least a metre high. This only takes only a year or two.

Acmena smithii is the drought hardiest of Australia's lillypillies.

Acmena or Syzygium?
Botanists have not come to an agreement about the name of this plant. All our lillypillies, of both Acmena and Syzygium species, were once grouped together under the name "Eugenia". Then in the 1930s they were split off from that genus and given their new names. This left only one Australian Eugenia species (and some 1000 overseas ones) behind.
Recently, there has been a move to put Acmena back together with Syzygium, which would give this plant the name "Syzygium smithii". Not everyone agrees, however. Botanists often disagree about whether similar plants are different enough to warrant being split up under two or more names, or whether their similarities justify lumping them together. In this case, we have lumpers in some states (and federally), who now use Syzygium smithii, and splitters sticking to their guns and "Acmena smithii" in Queensland and New South Wales.

We amateurs can certainly see clear differences between the two genera, so find the split convenient.
The fruit of Acmena has a neat circular cup at the apex of the fruit (the end opposite the stalk).

Here it is (above) on Acmena smithii...


...and on Acmena ingens, our two local Acmena species.

Syzygium fruit has this cup obscured by little fleshy claws - actually the remnants of the flower calyx.



Here they are (above) on Syzygium paniculatum, a species from the Sydney area growing in my garden...



... on Syzygium australe, photographed in the Bunya Mountains,


and somewhat less obviously on these Syzygium crebrinerve, from Goomburra.



The seeds are different, too.
 
 The flesh clings very firmly to the seeds of Acmena species (above), and is hard to get off without damaging the rather soft seed. (Fortunately, for those who like to "flesh" seeds before planting them, Acmena smithii doesn't need this treatment, and grows well when planted which the fruit whole.)


Syzygium seeds  sit quite loosely in the crisp white flesh, and are easy to pick out. Above is Syzygium australe...


 ...and this is Syzygium paniculatum.


A third rather similar fruit is that of the satinwood (above), Vitex lignum-vitae. It is sometimes mistaken for a lillypilly, but is easy to distinguish because there's nothing special about the apex of the fruit. Notice also that the white flesh discolours very quickly, like that of an apple.

Acmena and Syzygium can be distinguished from each other by their flowers, too.

Syzygium species (above) have large, fluffy flowers. May Gibbs used them as the inspiration for the delightful Miss Lilly Pilly, the famous movie star who meets Snugglepot and Cuddlepie.

Acmena flowers are rather boring by comparison.