Botany Nerds Ahoy

Yeah plants are amazing really in what they can provide, build houses from them, get products like rubber or even fuel and oils, obviously food but medicine is a big one too.

While i grew up in a culture where friends and even parents that were big pot heads i never really enjoyed being stoned much, but thinking back apart from growing some veggie's as a kid, growing pot mostly for fun (gave most away) was what got me interested in plants and gardening.

What are they Alfred?

goofyfoot wrote:

What are they Alfred?

Goofyfoot. Hi. Papaver somniferum- Opium Poppy. AW

AlfredWallace wrote:

Blackers, so true.

And the palm? its little hard to tell but looks like Trachycarpus fortunei (Chinesse windmill palm)

Is it dead? (just the trunk?)

Is the other plant stem in a pot in a background a Yucca or NZ Cordyline? (C. australis)

My biggest regret in my garden is planting Yucca elephantipes, the name should have been a warning, mine are the biggest most evil ones ive seen i planted them 500mm or more from the fence but now the trunk base is literally a metre wide and ruining my fence.

Im really not looking forward to getting them out.

Seem fine if neglected but in my rich soil with high water table they have gone crazy.

indo-dreaming wrote:

Yeah plants are amazing really in what they can provide, build houses from them, get products like rubber or even fuel and oils, obviously food but medicine is a big one too.

While i grew up in a culture where friends and even parents that were big pot heads i never really enjoyed being stoned much, but thinking back apart from growing some veggie's as a kid, growing pot mostly for fun (gave most away) was what got me interested in plants and gardening.

Indo. I really like a society that encourages young and old people to grow plants and on the home front, vegetables and fruit. Kids love it at primary ages. You learn insects, all manner of pollinators, birds, fungi, especially VAM (vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal) relationships where fungi hyphae and mycelium (the white lacy stuff you see among detritus and leaf litter)impregnate the root cortex and enhance the host plants root surface area for maximum uptake of available nutrients, for the fungi (being chemoautotrophs, they don’t photosynthesise) they use their own own chemicals to breakdown substrates for food and are provided additional carbohydrates as a thank you from the host plant. Win,win situation.AW

indo-dreaming wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

Blackers, so true.

And the palm? its little hard to tell but looks like Trachycarpus fortunei (Chinesse windmill palm)

Is it dead? (just the trunk?)

Is the other plant stem in a pot in a background a Yucca or NZ Cordyline? (C. australis)

My biggest regret in my garden is planting Yucca elephantipes, the name should have been a warning, mine are the biggest most evil ones ive seen i planted them 500mm or more from the fence but now the trunk base is literally a metre wide and ruining my fence.

Im really not looking forward to getting them out.

Seem fine if neglected but in my rich soil with high water table they have gone crazy.

Indo. Firstly, good comments, secondly, you have a very keen eye and excellent plant identification skills.
Spot on , in that photo there is Trachcarpus fortunei, Yucca gloriosa and Y.elephantipes and Aloe barbadensis.
I use the very tall trunks (mine are 8m high) of Chinese Windmill Palm to use as a substrate for my Australian Native Orchids, they live on the south side of it. Good stuff.AW.

Alfred, you dark horse you.
Btw, I missed your question re photo's a while back - my interest in macro evolved during the lockdown years, helped by keeping the focus close to home. Picking up a quality specialty lens for a bargain also helped.

@AlfredWallace

It is weird sometimes how you can ID a plant with limited details, generally you just instantly know but other times you might have to look a little more closely at different little aspect or break it down to a couple of species.

Like i said though my plant ID skills are very niche all those natives you can ID, id get maybe one out of ten if lucky.

Heres is two pics i just took from my garden with similar plants that are not so common.

This one is Trachycarpus fortunei cv. 'Wagnerianus'

Its like a dwarf version the leaflets are like 1/3 of the size and more stiff and stems(petiole) short and stiff, its a really pretty little palm almost has a bonsai type feel in real life. (although i have seen ones that are much more bonsai looking, they seem to have genetic variation and probably take on more of a bonsai look if full sun and neglected a little)

BTW. Those are water droplets not mottling or anything else.

And then this other one is a less common NZ Cordyline australis cultivar called "Karo Kiri"

Again it like a dwarf version of Cordyline australis, IMHO this plant should be much more widely grown unlike Cordyline australis its not messy it holds the old leaflets and they are easy too pull off and clean, and it doesn't grow that big max 2 metres and real compact and they are pretty much bullet proof to wind, salt, wet, dry, hail, heat, cold and if it gets to high or leggy they re-shoots easily when cut back, they are also suitable for growing in pots or small gardens.

It does have a PBR on it though so maybe thats why its not as widely grown as perhaps should be, i tend to find a lot of these more unique plants in areas of Melb that have Asian run nursery's like in Springvale , they always seem to have thing for rare or more collectable exotic plants.

BTW. The Palm one the left is a rare one from Madagascar Beccariophoenix alfredii (High Plateau Coconut Palm) it comes from inland higher altitude's areas where it gets very hot and very cold at times(night), so its a tuff palm, slow growing but when mature they looks almost like a Coconut palm without the coconuts
https://www.palmpedia.net/wiki/Beccariophoenix_alfredii

Madagascar for me is where its at for plants especially palms, the place has so many different types of palms they are still discovering new ones although sadly land clearing means many are no longer found in the wild and some might have have been lost forever if not in cultivation, there is also so much natural variation.

blackers wrote:

Alfred, you dark horse you.
Btw, I missed your question re photo's a while back - my interest in macro evolved during the lockdown years, helped by keeping the focus close to home. Picking up a quality specialty lens for a bargain also helped.

Blackers. Hi mate. Well, i look forward to seeing more of your quality productions .Good work.AW

Carpobrotus viriscens rules. And it's cousins in the SE, love them all.

velocityjohnno wrote:

Carpobrotus viriscens rules. And it's cousins in the SE, love them all.

Love ‘‘em too.

blackers wrote:

velocityjohnno wrote:

Carpobrotus viriscens rules. And it's cousins in the SE, love them all.

Love ‘‘em too.

Blackers, VJ. I’ll third that. Around the coast here it’s Carpobrotus rossii and a little way inland, Carpobrotus modestus and another which is prevalent with C.rossii in coastal areas is Disphyma crassifolium ssp.clavellatum, all of them are in the Aizoaceae family. Three little piggies, oink,oink. AW

Great bush tucker.

Keeping on the costal theme i guess seaweed is kind of a plant, well i guess technically an algae, anyone got knowledge on them?

Ive been meaning to do some research into whats edible and give a few a go i know the Sea spinach is edible.

freeride76 wrote:

Great bush tucker.

Freeride76. So true, all parts are edible, bit of a salty sweet taste with the fruits. Historical accounts have our indigenous people utilising the plants, observations lead to early colonists copying what they saw. A good plant that helped a little in combatting early signs of scurvy, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) deficiency.
Tetragonia sp. much the same. AW

Indo. Right up Freerides alley. The third photo is Hormosira banksii
Neptunes Necklace. The others I’ll have a crack at this evening when I’m home. AW

freeride76 wrote:

Great bush tucker.

They are okay if you find a bigger juicy one, but more of a novelty to show the kids and spin them out when you chomp into it, and then tell them to have a try then see them spit it out, then explain to them that this is what the indigenous people use to eat, so dont whinge about the fruit and veggies we have back at home.

AlfredWallace wrote:

Indo. Right up Freerides alley. The third photo is Hormosira banksii
Neptunes Necklace. The others I’ll have a crack at this evening when I’m home. AW

Still im impressed you know the botanical/latin name of even one, i expect you have a good knowledge of what the latin often means too?

I only know about half a dozen, but it still is kind of cool, you can get an understanding or clue just from the name too about say where the plant might grow or features or who found it etc

indo-dreaming wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

Indo. Right up Freerides alley. The third photo is Hormosira banksii
Neptunes Necklace. The others I’ll have a crack at this evening when I’m home. AW

Still im impressed you know the botanical/latin name of even one, i expect you have a good knowledge of what the latin often means too?

I only know about half a dozen, but it still is kind of cool, you can get an understanding or clue just from the name too about say where the plant might grow or features or who found it etc

Indo. Hi. You’ve probably worked out that plants take up the majority of my life, birds a close second, it’s the connection to all things biological that interests me, I’ve mentioned previously I’m interested in Evolutionary Biology. I’m not a scientist or a university graduate, just a very interested person who loves the cellular/biological/scientific world.

I’m a Botanical nomenclature (naming) purist. I can’t stand scientific names written incorrectly or poorly. Over time you do gain a great understanding of what the meanings of both the Genus & Species may be. Albeit, sometimes the names have no relevance at all to the very plant in ya hand. The second photo which I can’t make out the fine detail, I’m guessing a species of Ulva, sea lettuce.

1st shot, deffo a type of bladderwrack (Fucus sp) edible.
try nibbling the tips and see. Nice salty flavour.
Fucus sp prob the most common type of brown algae found in intertidal rockpools world-wide.
Maybe used for Commercial algae production down the track.

Second shot deffo sea lettuce (Ulva sp) also edible. (most common blackfish/luderick bait)
grab heaps and throw it in a salad. (wash off sand 1st).
I grab and nibble on rock-offs.

Neptunes bracelet/necklace also edible.

Not sure on 4th one.

freeride76 wrote:

1st shot, deffo a type of bladderwrack (Fucus sp) edible.
try nibbling the tips and see. Nice salty flavour.
Fucus sp prob the most common type of brown algae found in intertidal rockpools world-wide.
Maybe used for Commercial algae production down the track.

Second shot deffo sea lettuce (Ulva sp) also edible. (most common blackfish/luderick bait)
grab heaps and throw it in a salad. (wash off sand 1st).
I grab and nibble on rock-offs.

Neptunes bracelet/necklace also edible.

Not sure on 4th one.

Well there you go that's impressive knowledge we all have our little niches.

Yeah i dont think we get Luderick down here but been Luderick fishing with NSW mates up the coast was fun to use it for fishing and burly and do a totally different type of fishing, from memory cast right into the wash near edge of rocks with a float, i dont think i liked eating them though.

enjoying this thread fellas , keep it going

A couple of indigenous beauties on yesterdays walk


peninsula open space trust
Don’t know what this open space stuff is about?? Imagebb just added it on there

The old WA legend Skeg taught me to eat the sea grapes in between the sets, when I was a grom, they were these brown seaweed floating air bulb thingies.

AlfredWallace wrote:

Blackers, VJ. I’ll third that. Around the coast here it’s Carpobrotus rossii and a little way inland, Carpobrotus modestus and another which is prevalent with C.rossii in coastal areas is Disphyma crassifolium ssp.clavellatum, all of them are in the Aizoaceae family. Three little piggies, oink,oink. AW

Cool, good to know the name. Hey Alfred, could you reconstitute a coastal dune environment - what did it look like pre Marram on the Surf Coast. Names of species I mean.

There's this one place I shared a pic of with Swellnet many years ago now, it's temperate and there's no marram and you get the native dune species forming this really gradual gradient from the land (with plenty of blowout) into the sea - and the sandbanks thus have the gradual gradient offshore and produce perfect A frames.

goofyfoot wrote:

A couple of indigenous beauties on yesterdays walk


peninsula open space trust
Don’t know what this open space stuff is about?? Imagebb just added it on there

Goofyfoot.Hi there. The plant with the little yellow flowers is Pimelea serpillyfolia , found in primary and secondary coastal The plant with the silver foliage is a species of Olearia,
bit hard to tell from the shot.AW

Cheers Alfred, I knew you’d know that one.
Second one Olearia axillaris I’m pretty sure
New silvery growth

velocityjohnno wrote:

AlfredWallace wrote:

Blackers, VJ. I’ll third that. Around the coast here it’s Carpobrotus rossii and a little way inland, Carpobrotus modestus and another which is prevalent with C.rossii in coastal areas is Disphyma crassifolium ssp.clavellatum, all of them are in the Aizoaceae family. Three little piggies, oink,oink. AW

Cool, good to know the name. Hey Alfred, could you reconstitute a coastal dune environment - what did it look like pre Marram on the Surf Coast. Names of species I mean.

There's this one place I shared a pic of with Swellnet many years ago now, it's temperate and there's no marram and you get the native dune species forming this really gradual gradient from the land (with plenty of blowout) into the sea - and the sandbanks thus have the gradual gradient offshore and produce perfect A frames.

VJ. Hi mate. I’ll send you a list tomorrow, just got in from a day’s activity, totally cooked. AW

goofyfoot wrote:

Cheers Alfred, I knew you’d know that one.
Second one Olearia axillaris I’m pretty sure
New silvery growth

GF that was my first thought O.axillaris, new growth for sure, i was looking more for the green of a mature plane, Good stuff.
We all like learning, plant trivia., here we go, The genus Olearia is taken from Olea the scientific genus of European and African olives, olives have discolorous leaves meaning green on the upper surface grey underneath, the grey is there to reflect heat downwards, it’s quite downy and insulative and protects stomata from losing water via evapotranspiration. Olearia sp. are also discolorous like olives hence the name.AW

freeride76 wrote:

1st shot, deffo a type of bladderwrack (Fucus sp) edible.
try nibbling the tips and see. Nice salty flavour.
Fucus sp prob the most common type of brown algae found in intertidal rockpools world-wide.
Maybe used for Commercial algae production down the track.

Second shot deffo sea lettuce (Ulva sp) also edible. (most common blackfish/luderick bait)
grab heaps and throw it in a salad. (wash off sand 1st).
I grab and nibble on rock-offs.

Neptunes bracelet/necklace also edible.

Not sure on 4th one.

Freeride76, very interesting, thanks.AW

You're a wealth of knowledge AW, love it.

goofyfoot wrote:

You're a wealth of knowledge AW, love it.

Goofyfoot. Thanks .

Learning together, as my old science teacher use to say.

I say, if you’re interested, it’s all interesting .AW

Have never seen anything like this, but they've popped up at North Head out of a fairly innocuous looking shrub. Incredible!

Anyone know what they are?

Craig wrote:

Have never seen anything like this, but they've popped up at North Head out of a fairly innocuous looking shrub. Incredible!

Anyone know what they are?

Craig. Hi. Nice photography, thanks, made for easy identification.

The plant is Styphelia triflora. Pink swamp heath.

Formerly of the Epacridaceae family (Southern Hemisphere heath plants), it has now been amalgamated into the global heath family, Ericaceae. Does not sit well with me, but thats how it is.

Plants in this family generally rely on Vesicular, Arbuscular Mychorriza (VAM) fungi relationships to survive.AW.

seeds wrote:

Took a walk today in the coastal heath.
3 similar plants with little white flowers

Seeds. You are out botanising, great, you know you’ll become a plant nerd before you know it.

Your first two photos, a little fuzzy, a species of Leucopogon, from where I’m judging, Leucopogon parviflorus. Coast Beard Heath.

(Leucopogon translates to meaning ‘white beard’ look closely at the floral arrangement, you’ll see this). This genus of plants is many and varied, also formerly part of the Epacridaceae family, but know sits in Ericaceae family.

These plants also can only survive in the presence of VAM fungi as I've previously mentioned.

The bottom photo is Ricinocarpos pinifolius ,the Wedding Bush, it's a member of a plant family that has a very large amount of different genera (plural of genus) the Euphorbiaceae, The Spurge plants are well known, mostly as weeds, also big cactus like plants are members. Goods stuff. AW

seeds wrote:

Lots of fungi on all the fallen tree limbs such as banksias

Seeds Hi mate. I bet it was nice to be walking in that type of vegetation.

There is fungi that only attacks dead wood, like the Bracket Fungus, generally medium to large and often yellow to Orange in colour, they don’t attack new tissue of vascular plants, they are prolific at breaking down cellulose.

The VAM fungi I’ve mentioned is found in the upper area of soil area near the surface, the Rhizosphere, where most chemical reactions occur.

Your last photo of the plant with the curly leaves i think is a monocot but it appears as though there’s a few different plants intermingled,, so I can’t be accurate for identification, I’m thinking from the Restionaceae family, this family and others like Cyperaceae and Juncaceae are all the rush, rope, tassel kind of semi bog plants. I may be totally wrong on all this, it’s hard to distinguish without being there.

Anyone else have a clue ? AWy

Hey AW, been meaning to ask you if you ever went to Austra Folia Nursery up Montrose way? Bill Molyneux was ahead of his time.

seeds wrote:

So VAM fungi is under or in the the top layer is soil. Never sees the light of day?

Seeds. In the top soil zone, the rhizosphere, where plants roots proliferate and form all kinds of relationships and chemical bonding.

Fungi, never seeing the light of day, no need, they don't need light at all, they cant photosynthesise, they have no chlorophyll present. AW

GuySmiley wrote:

Hey AW, been meaning to ask you if you ever went to Austra Folia Nursery up Montrose way? Bill Molyneux was ahead of his time.

GuySmiley. Hi mate. How’s things ? I was at Austraflora a lot in my earlier years of landscaping, Bill was ahead of his time, unfortunately so were his prices. As a landscaper I couldn’t buy plants for jobs that had heavy retail tags on them, great for my home garden and thats it. You get seduced by a large collection of native plants, like a lolly shop, species from all states, in reality 50% of them were suitable for Victoria and the rest you have to nurse for quite awhile to get some success if any. All learning, so was never a dull moment.AW

True that on prices but he did have a broader influence on the native plant nurseries industry causing many more nurseries to be established and thrive, cheers

A few from today, beautiful and sunny. AW
All the same tree. I’ve previously mentioned the name

More for us nerds.AW.

Thanks AW! Nailed it. Edible as well it seems.

A couple more..

View this post on Instagram