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.

Sandfly Zieria

Zieria smithii
(pronounced ZEE-AREA)
Family: RUTACEAE

I photographed this rather delicate-looking shrub growing wild in the Pechey arboretum, a few weeks ago. It’s not common in our area, but is also known from the rather sandy soil around Kleinton, north of Highfields.
It’s an unmistakable plant, the only shrub hereabouts with these distinctive triple leaves. We see it as a metre-high plant, but in north Queensland it can apparently get to 6 metres.
It is rather pretty, with its tiny four-petalled flowers coming out at this time of year when flowering plants are a little harder to find. It would probably appreciate being pruned quite hard after flowering, to keep in neatly shaped.
Its rather odd name refers to a belief that rubbing the aromatic leaves on the skin repels sandflies and mosquitos . I have no idea whether it works. You will smell interesting, though. Some people think it smells like kerosene. Others liken it to turmeric.

Square Stemmed Broom

Spartothamnella juncea
Family: LAMIACEAE

  This plant looks spectacular at this time of year, with its little orange fruits showing us why the plant has the alternative common name of “bead bush”.


It usually grows about a metre high, and about half a metre in diameter. Grown as a neat, free-standing plant, it tends to be somewhat shapeless, as seen with this plant at Peacehaven Botanic Park. Pruning (after the fruits finish in August or September) neatens up its shape and encourages fresh green growth.
New growth in early summer comes with masses of little white flowers.
This is a very tolerant plant, found on drought-prone, well-drained blacksoil or sandstone hillsides, and in situations where it gets wet feet from time to time. It does like mulch, and if the season is very dry, it looks its best if given some water during the spring growth period.
It does well in full sun or semi-shade.
Its habitat has often been invaded by lantana and it makes a good replacement plant in areas where that weedy invader is being cleared, offering the birds some similar resources in the way of nesting sites and crops of small fruits.
Close planted, square-stemmed broom plants make effective hedges, and can be used in sites such as under eaves.
I noticed some healthy little plants for sale in Crows Nest Community Nursery when I was there last week.

Common Tussock Grass

Poa labillardierei 
Family: POACEAE












Common Tussock Grass in summer, at the Bunya Mountains
 
“Poa” was the ancient Greek word for “fodder”. Nor surprisingly, most Poa species are important pasture grasses.
Poa is one of the oldest scientific plant names still in use, first given to a common European grass (Poa annua) in 1753 by Linnaeus, in his famous work “Species Plantarum” – the publication which began the modern system of plant names. There are now about 500 Poa species known, around the world They are so representative of “typical grass” that they have given the grass family,  Poaceae its name.

Our local species are attractive grasses which form dense, knee-high, weeping tussocks. Their graceful purplish flowerheads mature into conspicuous white seedheads, giving them the alternative common name “whitetop”.

This grass is seen to best advantage on the “balds” in the Bunya mountains, where it is the dominant grass.

The balds are appealing grassy patches sprinkled throughout the rainforest. They were originally maintained by aboriginal burning, to create “kangaroo grounds” for hunting. These remnants of Australia's cultural heritage are now slowly being invaded with weeds - although the National Park staff hope to reverse the process by learning and implementing a suitable fire regime.

This grass is probably the major host plant for the Banks’ brown butterfly (Heteronympha banksii mariposa), a beautifully patterned butterfly which spends most of its long adult life (it breeds only once a year) in the rainforest understorey.
Poa grasses were used by aborigines for making nets and string dilly bags.

Broad Leafed Ballart

Exocarpos latifolius
Family: SANTALACEAE

The “fruits” on these plants are just beginning to ripen in the Toowoomba area. They are odd little things, not true fruits, but swollen seed-stems (pedicels). However, for the plant’s purposes they serve the same function as fruits. They attract birds which eat the whole thing. The seeds go unharmed through the birds’ digestive tract and are deposited far from the parent tree, each with its little dollop of fertiliser.


Claims are made that the fruits are both edible and palatable. I found this one to be sweet, but so astringent as to be unpleasant. However, I notice that the “Noosa’s Native Plants” website informs us that the fruits must be very ripe and beginning to “wrinkle like a sultana” before they are nice to eat.


The plants are shrubs and small trees, usually to about 3 metres (although they can grow taller). Their broad leaves make them look quite unlike their close relative, the common ballart Exocarpos cupressiformis, with its cypress-like leaves.

Broad leafed ballarts are partially parasitic on the roots of other plants. Although sometimes described as “attacking the roots” of host trees, they are unlikely to be particularly harmful to their hosts. Their dependancy has not been thoroughly studied, but it seems to be the case that they are parasitic only when quite young and have not grown enough leaves to make their own food.
This attractive plant is not known in cultivation, probably because its needs as a young plant, with regard to a host, are poorly understood. It doesn't seem even to be known just which plants it can use, but they may be other shrub and tree species from its semi-evergreen vine thicket habitat. Plants found growing close to the ballarts, in the area where these photos were taken, include Croton insularis, Notelaea microcarpa, Alectryon diversifolius, and Arytera foveolata. It is possible that planting the seeds in a pot with seedlings of those species might succeed.
Ballart seedlings probably also require the correct mycorrhizal fungus to link them with their host plants, so seeds should be planted with a good handful of “mother soil”, gathered from around the roots of the parent ballart. Please let me know, if you have any success!
Near Toowoomba, we most often see this tree on the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range, on sandstone soils. However, I have also seen it on the basalt hills in the Kingsthorpe / Gowrie Junction area. Good drainage is probably necessary for its successful cultivation.
Its bark and seeds were traditionally used as contraceptives, and it is one of the many local plants which may prove to be a useful source of drugs - in this case as a possible cure for tuberculosis.
For more on Exocarpos cupressiformis, see Dec 2010

Singles versus Groups

Cupaniopsis parvifolia
Family: SAPINDACEAE
Here are some very pretty scrub tuckeroos, demonstrating just how attractive the trees of our local semi-evergreen vine thickets look when grown in full sun

Look at these trees closely, and you will note that the one on the left is a single tree. The “one” on the right is a group of four. They have grown together since infancy, moulding their canopies into a neat single item.
While these trees are naturally occurring, they are demonstrating a neat trick that we can use in gardens. Planting in close groups creates a canopy more quickly than one plant could do alone. The technique is appropriate for all our local dry rainforest plants, whose deep roots don’t compete with each other.
Like so many species of the dry softwood scrubs, scrub tuckeroos are small trees, suitable for suburban gardens with their shady canopies and deep, drought-defying roots.

Our local Banksias

Tree Banksia  Banksia integrifolia
Family: PROTEACEAE
Banksias come into their own in winter, with their nectar-rich flowers feeding birds and insects at a time when other food sources might be hard to find.
Banksia integrifolia is the only banksia species native to our local basalt soils. It is also Australia’s only tree-sized banksia. Despite the often-used common name, "coast banksia", its natural range extends almost as far west as Goondiwindi. It needs very well-drained soil, so is more usually found on sandy than basalt soils, but it grows well in the light red basalt soil at the crest of the Range.

The one native to red soil at Highfields (and shown in the photos in this post) was identified for me at the Qld herbarium as the northern subspecies Banksia integrifolia subsp. compar. However, on another occasion, another herbarium botanist identified trees over the road as Banksia integrifolia subsp. integrifolia, a plant whose range extends as far south as Victoria. I can only think that the truth of the matter is that we live in an area where the two subspecies overlap, and that our locals are intergrades, but I am happy to be corrected!
Our local subspecies, whatever it is, rarely reaches more than 5 metres tall, so is a good choice for garden use. Plants grown from local seed are worth procuring (or grown from seed collected in spring) as they are likely to be hardier to frost and drought than plants sourced from more coastal areas.
Young flowers are green,

maturing to yellow with a slight hint of pink.



Leaves on young plants are quite toothy, but as the plants mature, they become smooth-edged. They grow in whorls of about 3-5, which gives the trees a distinctive look. Even from a distance, it can’t be mistaken for any other tree.

I don’t know the age of this specimen, but doubt if it would be more than ten years old. Older plants get broader, rather than taller.

Like most Banksias, this tree has a lignotuber  - a woody, swollen trunk base, just below ground level. Lignotubers are an adaptation to fire, which may – with some difficulty in the case of this hardy plant - kill off the whole plant above-ground. Below, though, it remains alive and well, and will re-sprout with vigorous multiple stems in the next rain. Trees which don’t suffer this misfortune develop lovely twisted and gnarled old branches. 
The advantage of lignotubers in the garden is that the plants which have them can be pruned hard, to keep them shrub-sized.