Mallee Native Plants

Mallee Scrub

2 Comments »7th November, 2006; Category: Conservation Parks, Drought Tolerant Plants

Mallee Scrub

‘The Mallee’ is a term covering several scenarios. The Mallee is a term used to describe areas of the country which are covered in mainly Eucalypts of the mallee type. A feature, and this is what I love, is the variety of smaller plants forming the understory. These plants are often prolific and very colourful flowering plants.

We talk about Mallee towns being those towns, usually in farming communities, which exist because of the mallee areas being cleared for farming.

The photos show parts of Lowan Conservation Park including the access track through the park.

Mallee Scrub

Porcupine Grass (Triodia scariosa- formerly irritans)

9 Comments »6th November, 2006; Category: Drought Tolerant Plants, Tufted Plants

Triodia scariosa (Porcupine Grass)

A plant that I admire but treat with great caution is Spinifex, Triodia scariosa (used to be called Triodia irritans). Just getting the photos was a hazard. Backing into one of these is a painful experience. It is the dome shape that I like and when in flower it is attractive. Even these with the seed heads were good to look at.

Triodia scariosa (Porcupine Grass)

They are amazing plants. Bush creatures find them a welcome refuge. Even Brer Rabbit would not have wanted Brer Fox to throw him into these. We saw a small spiny dragon lizard scuttle into one as we drove along the track at Lowan Conservation park. As the plants become older, the centre dies out and we have seen kangaroos resting in the middle of large clumps of spinifex.

I just checked one of my reference books. It appears that I should be calling this Porcupine Grass, as the coastal plant is Spinifex sericeus.

Eucalyptus socialis (Red Mallee)

6 Comments »5th November, 2006; Category: Conservation of Plants, Drought Tolerant Plants, Eucalypts, Plants of South Australia, Trees

Eucalyptus socialis (Red Mallee)

Most of the Eucalypts at Lowan Conservation Park are the mallee, Eucalyptus socialis. I found a good specimen to photograph. I wanted to gather an album of local Eucalypts.

The mallees are great survivors. When top branches are chopped down, or blown down, or burnt by bush fires, they shoot again from buds in the stump, called a lignotuber. The trees can look dead and be covered in new shoots within weeks.

Yellow Daisies (Podolepis rugata)

No Comments »4th November, 2006; Category: Daisies, Hardy Australian Native PLants

Podolepis rugata

We spent a couple of hours at Lowan Conservation Park this afternoon. Typical of the mallee in a dry season, everything had finished flowering. However to my delight I found one of my favourite daisies. I wish we had gone there last week as there would have been a hectare of yellow to be seen.

This is a perennial plant. I would like to plant a group of them and hope that they self seed around the garden. It would make a great cottage garden plant. I managed to get a couple of good photos of Podolepis rugata (Pleated Podolepis). When flowering finishes, the head becomes a fluffy white ball, which also looks attractive.

More Banksias

No Comments »3rd November, 2006; Category: Banksias, Drought Tolerant Plants, Frost Hardy Plants

There were a number of Banksias in flower at the arboretum including Banksia ashbyi mentioned the other day. This photo is much better.

All the plantings are on deep sand. The soil seems to hold moisture quite well despite being in a low rainfall area.

Banksia ashbyi