Darwins Walk, Wentworth Falls, Blue Mountains NP       20 Oct 2018

On a fine October day, we met at Wentworth Falls station for a bushwalk to see the spring show of flowers. 

The Charles Darwin Walk follows the beautiful Jamison Creek south, arriving at the top of Wentworth Falls.

The terrain is sandy over Hawkesbury sandstone but with underlying hanging swamp in places. There are also rock platforms with overlying water and bog conditions.

The vegetation is varied: woodland on the ridges, lower growing species on the alluvial areas adjacent to the creek and hanging swamp. Some endemic species of the Blue Mountains were identified.

We identified 22 species in flower and we probably missed quite a few more.

We took a leisurely few hours walking the track, taking great delight in spotting the different flowering plants and trying to identify the species.

Images: Syl Caspaney & Marilyn Cross

Plant ID: Pip Gibian et al.

Native Plants for a Cottage Garden 18/08/2018
Brian Roach

Brian gave his usual energetic and spirited presentation on this topic last Saturday.

He outlined the parameters of cottage gardens and the type of plants that might be suited to that environment.

Then followed a breakdown by plant size and a series of excellent photos of candidate native plants and a discussion of the needs to successfully grow each one of them.

Brian’s background knowledge really shone through and he fielded a range of questions from the audience to complete this part of our meeting.

Small plants to 50cm:

NATIVE BEES & OTHER POLLINATORS  23/06/2018
Dr Michael Batley
Summary: Dr Marilyn Cross

Many plants depend on animals, particularly insects, to transfer pollen as they forage. Plants attract pollinators in various ways, by offering pollen or nectar meals and by guiding them to the flower using scent and visual cues. This has resulted in strong relationships between plants and the animals that pollinate them (Australian Museum, 2018). However, a key scientific question that is not easily answered is ‘What pollinates what?’. That question has engaged Michael over the last few decades. It is estimated that there is some degree of specialisation in ~8% of bees. One intriguing example is that of ‘inside out flowers’ such as figs where the male wasps live inside the figs and the female sometimes rips off her wings before visiting the male and incidentally pollinating the fig flower. 

Image Cross: Pollinator on Xanthorrhoea macronema	Image Cross: Temptation for a Pollinator: Bearded Orchid

Our summary has attempted to give some flavour of Michael’s fascinating talk but to find out more, one could begin by consulting the publication: Native Bees of the Sydney Region. A Field Guide by Dollin, A., M. Batley, M. Robinson & B. Faulkner (2000).

Narelle Hap on 'Native Plant Foods'  24/02/18

NATIVE PLANT FOODS, THEIR CULTIVATION AND USES

At our meeting on 24th February 2018 we had a great talk by Narelle Happ on native plant foods. As well as being a good communicator, Narelle speaks from experience. She grows almost all the plants she describes, and regularly uses them in her kitchen when feeding her family. As well as plant photos, Narelle illustrated her talk with pot specimens from Sydney Wildflower Nursery, which were sale at afternoon tea. She also brought some delicious food for us to try. It was a warm day and we were greeted with a refreshing lemon cordial flavoured with Backhousia citriodora. At afternoon tea there were muffins made from wattle seed, and saltbush damper with lillypilly jam. During the talk Narelle handed around some delicious Strawberry Gum Bliss Balls, chocolate balls flavoured with ground Eucalyptus olida leaves.

In her talk Narelle divided plants by size, trees shrubs and smaller plants including herbs. We learned that only 6 species of Acacia can be eaten, but 2 of them grow locally, Acacia longifolia and A. sophorae (or alternatively Acacia longifolia ssp sophorae). The latter version is much smaller so better suited to suburban gardens. The seeds are roasted and ground into flour. Many food plants are from our rainforests, and happily grow in Sydney’s humid summers, with extra water in dry times. Quite a number of rainforest fruits are edible and delicious. Many grow in shade so can be planted as understory plants. Some are small trees, but Narelle advocates pruning to ensure that fruit can be easily reached. We learned that the leaves of the common Prostanthera species, rotundifolia and incisa, yield replacement herbs for thyme and sage respectively. Some Tasmannia species are called Pepper Berry, but the leaves have a much stronger pepper level than the berries. At the other end of the spectrum were the small plants like Mentha, the native mint, and the tubers of the Chocolate Lilly and Bulbine species. Narelle has now sent notes to distribute to members by email.

All in all this was a great talk.

Photo: Red berries of Linospadix monostachyos  (Walking Stick Palm)