Native Plants for NSW -
June 2023
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Banksia spinulosa (M Swire) |
From the President
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Dear {Contact_First_Name},
The main event of the last month was the Annual General Meeting on 20 May at Kariong, hosted by Central Coast Group. Sue Fredrickson, Lisa Godden and Peter Olde stepped down from the Board and Heather Miles stood down as President. Heather has put in a gigantic effort over a number of years, particularly with the conference at Kiama last September. We all owe Heather a significant debt of gratitude for all her achievements and wish her well in her future land clearing, digging and planting activities. I was honoured to accept the role of President and hope to continue the development of activities based around gardening but with a growing interest in conservation which can harness the expertise of members.
There were three important presentations at the AGM, with life memberships awarded to Jenny Simons and Tim Hayes, and the conservation award to Jane Lemann. Their multiple achievements are described in more detail in this newsletter.
I would encourage all members to review the events and activities and participate in as many as possible. Our regular quarterly gatherings are always worthwhile and allow ideas to be exchanged and compared. As well as these there are opportunities for other activities and our Southern Highlands group last month hosted a visit by 20 members of Canberra APS. We will reciprocate next year as a very useful and pleasant time was had by all.
John Desmond, President
eNewsletter Contents:
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Coffs Harbour Group - Fossils plants from the Triassic of Gondwana
When: 10am, 13th June 2023
Where: The Display Room, North Coast Regional Botanic Garden, Cnr Coffs & Hardacre St, Coffs Harbour Hear from Keith Holmes and his wife Heidi Anderson, also a palaeobotanist who have made many collecting trips to the Nymboida quarries for fossil plants. By 2013, their private collection numbered over 2600 selected slabs with many displaying two or more fossil plants. More details here
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North Shore Group - Walks and Talks When: 9:45am Mondays Where: Ku-ring-gai wildflower garden
Hear a talk by members of the North Shore group of the Australian Plants Society then be guided on a walk in the Ku-ring-gai Wildflower Garden to see and learn about our focus species as they come into flower.
June 5 - Flowers to Fruit June 19 - Lilies and Orchids June 26 - Walk only More details here |
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Illawarra Group - Walk and Talk on Ferns
When & Where: 18th June 2023 9am: walk from Croom Reserve, Albion Park 11:30am: Dr Kevin Mills will speak on Illawarra ferns at Kembla Joggers Clubhouse, Darkes Road, Kembla Grange.
Dr Kevin Mills is a botanist and ecologist who has lived in the Illawarra for over 45 years and has recently retired from environmental consultancy work. He is currently working on various projects, including studies of all offshore islands on the south coast, a field study and book of the ferns of the south coast, and various floristic and rare plant surveys.
More details here
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Ferns in the Illawarra (M Swire) |
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Pultenaea rosmarinifolia (S McLaren) |
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Australian pea flower study group - 'Pea Forage'
When: 19th & 20th August
Where: Central coast, various locations
Join the Pea Flower study group for the inaugural Pea Forage on the Central Coast of NSW in August. This is an opportunity to learn how to recognise pea flowers and identify different genera, or simply enjoy the hunt.
More details here
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APS get togethers
16 September - gathering at the Corrimal Community Centre, hosted by the Illawarra Group. There is now a full program available, please get in and register ASAP- some activities have limited numbers. Details here
17-19 November get together at Goulburn hosted by the Southern Tablelands Group. Some details here |
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Native Plants Queensland State Conference
When: 14-18th September 2023
Where: Cairns
Normally, Native Plant State Conferences occur biennially in the alternative year to National Conferences, however due to Covid they have not held a State Conference for some years. Places are limited so please submit your application asap to avoid disappointment.
More details here |
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Re-greening our country and saving our species - planting events
When: Various weekends and week days, August - October 2023 Where: 'Moorlands' farm, Biala, NSW. By joining the Oatley Flora and Fauna Conservation Society members, who are planting 5,500 native trees and shrubs in the coming spring, you can add to the essential habitat for the endangered Superb Parrot which is breeding at ‘Moorlands’ located in the South West Slopes of NSW.
More information and registrations here |
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Planning is underway for the ANPSA Biennial Conference in Melbourne in 2024. See here for more information, save the dates! |
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And finally, don't forget there is a full listing of all APS NSW events including district groups on our website here |
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Life members and conservation award - 2023 |
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Jenny Simons - Life Membership
Jenny Simons established an Australian bush garden in her Turramurra home in the 1960s and when she retired to the Southern Highlands she grew natives among the roses and camellias of the standard highlands gardens. She established three new garden clubs in the area, worked as a bush regenerator and was a founding member and early President of the Australian Plants Society Southern Highlands District Group. Jenny has opened her garden to visitors for nearly 30 years and her collection of local area endemics is now housed at the Janet Cosh Herbarium at Wollongong University.
Read about Jenny's award here |
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Tim Hayes- Life Membership
Tim Hayes has been growing native plants and leading walks in the Goulburn area since the 1980s and this small group became the Southern Tablelands District Group of the Australian Plants Society. Tim has been a member for 36 years of which 29 years has been on the committee in various roles. He is a recognised expert on the Pea family for which he has identified a new species and is regularly consulted on classification issues by the National Herbarium in Canberra. Tim has propagated many plants for distribution to Landcare groups and others and has provided many of the plants used in the establishment of the Goulburn Wetlands.
Read about Tim's award here
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Jane Lemann - Conservation award Jane Lemann has lived in the Wingecarribee district long term and started the Mount Gibraltar bushcare group over 35 years ago. This has involved some lobbying to Council for approval and then many hours spent removing honeysuckle, privet, berberis and cotoneaster and a host of other garden escapees. There is now a dedicated group who work on Mount Gibraltar (known locally as “the Gib”) on a weekly basis. As well as regular bushcare activities Jane pushed Council to impose an Environment levy on residents of Wingecarribee with money to be used only for projects that protect and enhance the local environment. Jane has also served for over 27 years on various environmental committees of Council and has been awarded an OAM for Services to the Environment. Read more about Jane's achievements here |
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Dendrobium speciosum - short cane variety (R Laney) |
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Richard Laney shares with us his journey growing Dendrobium speciosum (rock orchid) after we got to admire his plants during garden visits at the recent APS NSW gathering at Bundeena. He explains the history of his own plants, his tips for growing to get the best blooms and for getting rid of common pests like the dendrobium beetle. |
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In April, Heather Miles shared with a local garden club her passion for native plants – why grow natives and the best way to go about it. In particular, how do we introduce natives into an existing garden and what are the traps to be aware of.
Instead of a powerpoint presentation and screen, she produced half a dozen big posters of her talk to share with the group. Supported by a stunning bunch of flowers from Brian Roach’s garden, as well as some healthy tubestock to sell, they had a good discussion.
Read on for her why and how on growing a native garden. |
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One of the posters (H Miles) |
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Myrtle rust on Melaleuca quinquenervia (© State of New South Wales)
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Myrtle rust is a fungal disease that arrived in Australia in 2010 and since then has brought four native Myrtaceae plant species to the point of near extinction and another 40 odd into a state of serious decline.
Described as the “pinnacle of pathogens”, it cannot be eradicated. Despite the threat, there are some steps each of us can take to try to minimise the inevitable damage. Peter Geelan-Small has put together a fascinating article on this terrible disease. |
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Huntsman Spiders - friend, not foe |
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Green Huntsman Spider (S Humphreys ©Australian Museum)
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At the Northern Beaches group meeting in April, they were treated to a fascinating presentation on Huntsman Spiders.The speaker was Helen Smith, an arachnologist with the Australian Museum Research Institute, Sydney.
Helen’s presentation was illustrated with many images of the various species of Huntsman spiders. She explained that an understanding of the nature of these arachnids helps to take away the fear of them. The natural reaction of most people to the sudden appearance of a Huntsman is surprise or fear, because of their scuttling type of movement and the fact that most spiders can bite. Do you think Huntsman are foe? Read more and hopefully you will also be convinced they are really friends who deserve to be treated with respect. |
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Mosaics of vegetation - the rocks and dirt story |
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At the APS gathering in March, Ann Young gave a talk on soil asking the question; Why do different plants and communities form mosaics or patterns across a landscape? Rhonda Daniels wrote a summary of Ann's talk, so if you missed it you can catch up here. |
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Slide from Ann's talk (A Young)
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Final words...
One of our members, Michael Swire, wears many hats. He is the president of the newly formed Illawarra APS group and also the creator of a very popular facebook group called 'Plants native to the greater Sydney region' which currently has over 3,000 members. We asked Michael to share with us what inspired him to start this group and also what it takes to run. Read his insights here. |
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