Australian Native Shrubs for Dry and Alkaline Areas
I will write these lists and gradually add to them and add further information. Around our own yard we have these medium to tall shrubs growing. They tend to be in windbreaks. It is always better to have multiple heights in plants in windbreaks, tall trees, medium trees and tall shrubs, and a few smallershrubs to create layers. There are less wind tunnels if this is done.
- Acacia iteaphylla (Flinders Range Wattle)
- Acacia aneura (Mulga)
- Hakea laurina (Pincushion Hakea)
- Hakea multilineata
- Melaleuca lanceolata
- Melaleuca uncinata
- Callitris priessii sub species canescens (Native Pine)
- Grevillea pinaster in its tall forms. The Honeyeaters love this as well as the Hakeas.
- Melaleuca nesophylla
- Melaleuca huegelii (Chenille Honey Myrtle)
- Melaleuca armillaris
- Grevillea olivacea
I am visualising what I remember growing around the town and in other towns with similar conditions. These lists will go on forever as I remember species.
Wild Peach-Quandong
The yummiest of the Australian native foods is the Quandong, or Wild Peach, fruit of Santalum acuminatum. These make great pies, served with cream, icecream or custard. As the fruit is quite tart, extra sugar is required but they are certainly a treat.
Years ago we had a tree when we were living in the north of South Australia. Being parasitic we were sure that its roots were attached to a very old grape vine which grew nearby. I remember many feasts when we could beat the birds to the fruit.
Friends in the mallee often had enough fruit from their tree to freeze it. Before Quandong Pie made its appearance in restaurants, Bev was supplying frozen fruit to a private concern in Adelaide. How they heard about the supply, I don’t know.
I was given a Sunshine Milk tin of dried fruit which had come from the upper north of the state. I thought that all my Christmases had come at once!
This a widespread large shrub or tree. It has small insignificant greenish flowers followed by large shiny red fruits. It grows widely in drier areas of the country. A host plant is needed when the plants are about twelve months old. Perennial grasses are often used.
It is not easy to propagate. Some say put the seed in a hessian bag with some peat and throw it behind the back shed and check it a few months later! Various methods are used. One that is supposed to work is to soak the kernal which has been removed from the hard shell, in a solution of household bleach for half an hour. Place the kernels in a plastic bag with moist wood shavings and keep cool and dark until germination takes place. Remove the sprouted kernels as soon as possible to individual pots.
New Zealand Spinach (Warrigal Greens)
Tetragonia teragonioides (Warigal Greens or New Zealand Spinach), is another bush tucker plant which is popular in restaurants which serve bush tucker foods. You would pay a premium price for a dish containing this, so grow your own.
It is a ‘juicy’ plant the leaves of which need to be blanched before eating. It is used in dishes in which spinach or silver beet would be used. Just make sure of your identification before trying any of the native plants as foods.
It seems to be a hardy plant for areas without frost. It is salt tolerant. Propagate by seed or cuttings.
Also take care that plants are not growing in or near areas that have been sprayed with chemicals! Friends had looked forward to a feast of field mushrooms last week. Having cooked them they could not eat them as they could pick the taste of some chemical in them. Others possibly would not have been noticed the flavour except that these folk are ex farmers.
Coffee from Kurrajong
I have been looking through an old (2004) Journal of the Society for Growing Australian Plants (Queensland Region). There is an interesting article on using the seeds of the Kurrajong (Brachychiton populneus) as a coffee substitute. The early settlers in the region first used it as such, including the explorer Ludwig Leichhardt. The seeds need to be husked, and then roasted like coffee beans, before being ground and brewed.
The tree is grown quite widely in Australia, including many areas of Southern Australia. The foliage has often been used as fodder for farm animals. They are often planted as ornamental trees in public parks. In summer the trees have clusters of creamy grey flowers which have red splotches all over the cream interior of the bell shaped flowers. The seeds are found in green seed pods, which gradually turn brown and then split open with yellow seeds.
Now is a good time to be looking for the seed pods. It is best to pick the lot once about a third of the pods have become brown. The problem comes at this stage because the birds love the seeds. Cockatoos, rosellas and choughs are partial to the seeds. Store the green pods out of reach of the birds for a few days while they ripen.
From the information in the article, it would be worth growing the tree to use the seeds, if you can win the battle with the birds.
The seeds have fine hairs which irritate greatly, so take care. Use a knife to split the pods and use a pair of leather gloves to rub the hairs off the seeds. Blow the hairs from the seeds and dry the seeds for a few days before storing them. (Watch out for the birds.)
Use a frying pan with a lid to roast the seeds on high heat, or if using an ordinary stove top pan stir all the while. This is how coffee is treated. The roasting is done according to the strength of the flavour you prefer. According to the article the flavour of the brewed ‘coffee’ is something like Mocha or long black Espresso coffee. The roasting is carried out until the Kurrajong seeds are the colour that you like in coffee.
Once roasted, the seeds are stored in a glass jar until needed for grinding. The suggested amount to use is a heaped dessertspoon of ground Kurrajong seeds per cup. Put the ‘coffee’ in a saucepan, cover with boiling water and bring back to the boil. Let stand a few minutes before straining and serving.
I don’t like coffee at all. I would rather try different teas. However I would be very interested to find out how this truly tasted.
Plants at Adelaide Zoo
Adelaide Zoo is great! We took our daughter to the airport on Tuesday morning and after a detour via Bunnings Garden Centre to see if there were any interesting Correas, went to the Zoo. With a shock we realised when we got home that it is four years since we visited.
The new developments are wonderful. We had seen the Lions at Monarto Zoo, but not those at Adelaide Zoo. Magnificent! The male was very superior in his attitude. The new plantings around the walking tracks are lovely.
I must say that I go to the Zoo with one eye on the occupants and the other on what is flowering. The Correas are just beginning to flower. Correa alba, a form of Correa glabra with narrow green tubes, a form of Correa reflexa were three that I saw. Various forms of Westringea fruticosa-Morning Light, Highlight, Westringea ‘Wynyabbie Gem’, Westringea rosmarinifolia were being used as a hedge to create walkways.
In the new rainforest areas there are many plants that I am not familiar with, but I have seen in many gardens, although of course not in the quantities seen in these larger areas. It would be a great place to go to see the plants ‘in function’, providing shade, screens, hedges, nesting sites, foraging areas.