Botany Nerds Ahoy
Seeds. Hi fella. Go to your local P.O today, it’s arriving.AW
My buddha belly bag it comment was taken out of context , sorry Seeds !
Guessing Seedy has created his own Potting Mix :) !
Some concoction of mulchy wormy Green Plant Super Food !
Let's mass produce the Stuff and get Australia Growing , again .
Stick it in a furnace 4 a test , it may even Power Australia .
Roger that AW
The bamboo is an Asper. Not Buddha Belly.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendrocalamus_asper
The new shoots are edible but I haven’t tried them.
Devine Madness wrote:My buddha belly bag it comment was taken out of context , sorry Seeds !
Guessing Seedy has created his own Potting Mix :) !
Some concoction of mulchy wormy Green Plant Super Food !
Let's mass produce the Stuff and get Australia Growing , again .
Stick it in a furnace 4 a test , it may even Power Australia .
Devine Man
North American lumber industry had been screaming out for hemp pulp for tongue and groove under flooring, they finally got it.
We should follow. You can grow 1.2million plants per hectare, non THC strain, purely for fibre which when I last checked is the strongest natural know fibre to man at present.
It’s time to get smart, or we will miss it by, that much AW
AW
You are right , again .
We should grow tons of Pot .
Just saw how Bangkok is coping with Weed shops everywhere .
Guessing , not much in this Mighty Mega City of 10 million has changed that much .
Especially for the Locals , that I saw on the Streets .
Alcohol is consumed by many more people .
Watched a doco yesterday about finding Temples in the Jungles of Cambodia , with Xray Drones .
The Scientists had to cut their way through Dope plants , to find another Temple .
The Plant must grow Everywhere !
The Locals are used to it .
Not sure why Things haven't been built with it before , more .
Just like the Aussie Lung Fish , the Dope Plant , if used properly , can lead Us into a New World Wide Building Millenia .
Legalise IT !
Devine Madness wrote:AW
You are right , again .
We should grow tons of Pot .
Just saw how Bangkok is coping with Weed shops everywhere .
Guessing , not much in this Mighty Mega City of 10 million has changed that much .
Especially for the Locals , that I saw on the Streets .
Alcohol is consumed by many more people .
Watched a doco yesterday about finding Temples in the Jungles of Cambodia , with Xray Drones .
The Scientists had to cut their way through Dope plants , to find another Temple .
The Plant must grow Everywhere !
The Locals are used to it .
Not sure why Things haven't been built with it before , more .
Just like the Aussie Lung Fish , the Dope Plant , if used properly , can lead Us into a New World Wide Building Millenia .
Legalise IT !
Devine Madness. Hi mate, sorry my mob thumped the Dees
You’re right, at least remove the prohibition factor and take away the criminal element, stop clogging up courts and wasting our money.
I’ve been going to conferences and symposiums for 25 years about hemp fibre.
Why are we so slow on the uptake? Seems like a regular theme for our country.
We know we should do the right thing but continue to mow down forests, it’s insane
Get a copy of David Lindemeyers lasted book, Forest Wars, recently released. It highlights the insane way we value and devalue biological assets and biodiversity, for what, just so we can wipe our arse or make cardboard boxes.
Does my head in. Piss weak governments of all persuasion. AW
Check out 'The Emperor wears no clothes' by Jack Herer. Fascinating book about hemp. I believe there was a $100k reward to anyone that can dis-prove any claim about hemp made in the book. I don't believe anyone has successfully done so.
zenagain wrote:Check out 'The Emperor wears no clothes' by Jack Herer. Fascinating book about hemp. I believe there was a $100k reward to anyone that can dis-prove any claim about hemp made in the book. I don't believe anyone has successfully done so.
Zen. Hi mate. Hope alls well with you and your family in Japan.
Good stuff, I’ll check it out, thanks. AW
AW , no your not , not a thumping either , although the Trac is off track 4 a while .
The Dees have a good run home .
If Goody and Gawny are True Leaders , a Kiwi finish , 4 sure :)
Australia is not the Only country that doesn't use Hemp Fibre , 4 building .
Not even sure if Anywhere uses it , perhaps its a Developing Technology , that's now READY to Use .
We need to Build lots of good Stuff .
Weed is a weed , it can be so cheap and leave the THC in it .
No regulations .
AW, I just picked up your package. Thanks heaps.
Couple of great reference books plus what looks like a couple good reads.
Cheers
seeds wrote:AW, I just picked up your package. Thanks heaps.
Couple of great reference books plus what looks like a couple good reads.
Cheers
Seeds. Hi, my pleasure.
The bird book is the compact form of the larger more comprehensive one. The Australian Bird Guide is the most up to date book, definitively, nothing else compares.
The Flora of Australia is old but I wanted you to have it because in the back there is a dichotomous key to plant identification, monocotyledons and dicotyledons. With a small hand lens (10x mag) you can identify basic floral parts. It’s one of those keys where you get option to yes it that or no it’s not and you go to the next option. It will get you the correct Plant Family . I hope you enjoy all of them. AW
Some sort of coastal beauty. In flower now along the coastal stretches. Smaller bushier type. Nothing immediately west of the coastal strip. Go the green and gold.
Intricate flowers on the wattles. Bland trees when not in flower.
seeds wrote:Some sort of coastal beauty. In flower now along the coastal stretches. Smaller bushier type. Nothing immediately west of the coastal strip. Go the green and gold.
Intricate flowers on the wattles. Bland trees when not in flower.
Seeds. Hi.
Is it Acacia maidenii Maidens Wattle ?
What’s very evident in the second photo are the phyllodinous leaves.
Phyllodes are modified leaf stems
Acacia sp. in Australia fall into two different categories,
(1) Bipinnate foliage, the ferny looking type, this foliage persists for its entire short life.
(2) The other is phyllodinous foliage, as in your photo. Only phyllodes present in adult life.
All Acacia sp. in Australia have bipinnate foliage post seed germination, it persists in the aforementioned (1) for the entirety.
In the (2) bipinnate foliage persists in the juvenile phase then modifies to phyllodes.
All Acacia sp. have a symbiotic relationship with a Rhizobium nitrogen fixing bacteria.
All African species of Acacia always have bipinnate foliage.AW
Holy cow!
I need a couple of Bex and a lay down after reading that.
Good stuff.
seeds wrote:Holy cow!
I need a couple of Bex and a lay down after reading that.
Good stuff.
Seeds. I’m sure you can muster up something organic that’s a little better than Bex.
Acacia botany is quite easy to grasp. If I had a couple of samples in my hand and you were present , you’d learn in 5 minutes how to distinguish what is what.
You look at the flowers first, find their group in a table in a little Wattle hand book, check the foliage and with a hand lens you look for the arrangement of little circular glands on the rachis which is what the leaves are connected to. If I’m ever up your way I could show you. AW
Okay, I just partook in a big bunga. No I didn’t. But I’m always struck by the beauty and intricacy of wattle flowers up close. Amazing! From an ugly tree generally when not in flower. Aussies to a tee. The understated that shine when needed or required.
Which Wattle is our national flower?
Solagard, innit?
;);), You got a green and gold house@basesix
oi oi oi
Acacia pycnantha Seeds. Golden Wattle.
They grow like weeds around here.
Thanks Mattlock. I’m a little bit patriotic.
I’ll google
Ah yes. I’ve seen the puff balls in my youth. Pretty weed indeed.
seeds wrote:Okay, I just partook in a big bunga. No I didn’t. But I’m always struck by the beauty and intricacy of wattle flowers up close. Amazing! From an ugly tree generally when not in flower. Aussies to a tee. The understated that shine when needed or required.
Seeds. Ditto, up close wattle flowers are devine.
I’m thinking your wattle photo could be Acacia fimbriata.
Most Acacia sp. not all , play a huge ecological role in our forests. AW
blackers wrote:seeds wrote:Always impressed when driving past this pine. Anyone have any idea how it would grow as a double? Was it just pure chance that two nuts grew side by side. The base looks as one at the very bottom.
Looks like one plant to me, but the main stem bifurcated early days.
Seeds. Hi fella.
Nice specimen. Bifurcation no problem, happens in the normal biological world when trees are struck by lightning, or when wind snaps the initial apical leader or disease kills that growth tip or animals chew it off.
Bifurcation normally happens early in a trees life.
Alas, it can be human induced also.
Plants/trees have all varying levels of hormones from the roots to the tip of the plant and to lateral branches, it’s a competition to balance equilibrium.
When one type of hormone is suppressed, it becomes opportunistic for other ones to exert their dominance.
For example, when you clip a hedge, you are removing hormones that control apical dominance and then lateral branches grow in a more horizontal manner until the apical hormone dominates again.
This is how gardeners can manipulate hedging to the plants advantage .AW
Ha cheers guys. Big words I don’t know but understand.
This one I planted at 1 foot from a pot. It’s now 20’ plus.
At about half this size a branch fell from a gum and snapped the top tip of the Bunya. I watched for a year and eventually a new shoot emerged within 10mm of broken tip.
Singular and kept heading for the sun.
Having trimmed many plants (here’s your next joke @ asham) to bush them out I was surprised to see it continue with a singular trunk.
ps that hurt writing that much.
seeds wrote:Ha cheers guys. Big words I don’t know but understand.
This one I planted at 1 foot from a pot. It’s now 20’ plus.
At about half this size a branch fell from a gum and snapped the top tip of the Bunya. I watched for a year and eventually a new shoot emerged within 10mm of broken tip.
Singular and kept heading for the sun.
Having trimmed many plants (here’s your next joke @ asham) to bush them out I was surprised to see it continue with a singular trunk.
ps that hurt writing that much.
Seeds. Hi. I like your garden and its rates of growth.
If you have a tree in its developmental stage, say 6 ft high and it has its dominant tip/leader/shoot heading for the sky, and for some accidental reason it gets broken off.
It’s very simple to reestablish what you previously had.
You get one of the supple side branches that is flexible enough to bend without snapping, bend it upwards facing to the sky, with a hardwood stake, tape it in two places to vertically hold it in place, wait a couple of months for the cells in the cell walls to lignify and go hard, before you know it you have a new leader again, remove hardwood stake and tape. Within a year or two you wouldn’t even know your original leader was broken or snapped off. AW
AW, this happened naturally I guess in my case. No sign of the original break. All trunk now.
ps thanks a lot. Now I have to go and google lignify. Always learning.
Lignin makes the cell walls hard (=woody). Snigger.
Hey, I’m well Lingin;)
But now I’m reading about protoplasts/plasm and then spheroplasts.
It’s all getting a bit sordid.
Learnt something today, that’s for sure.
seeds wrote:Hey, I’m well Lingin;)
But now I’m reading about protoplasts/plasm and then spheroplasts.
It’s all getting a bit sordid.
Learnt something today, that’s for sure.
Seeds. You know me, could rabbit on for days.
Cellulose is the most abundant natural/organic polymer on earth, found in cell walls.
Hemi- cellulose mostly found in the cell walls of cereal/grain crops, less woodiness required .
Lignin is the Arnold Schwarzenegger compound in cell walls that’s very resistant to water and subsequent rotting, hence bark and wood. AW
Hi all.
Nice specimen seeds! Always a favourite the bunya. I know of a similar looking 'double-hoop' in our area, and my partner and I have debated how it came to be. Sometimes just a wallaby chewing on the young seedling will trigger it, sometimes the seedlings just come up that way, as AW has far more eloquently explained.
just catching up on this thread - saw your message on the temperature. That just confirmed why I've left my cold house for a while! I hear it has been milder this week.
very balmy here. Now on the Cassowary Coast. A sleepy coastal town, with a nice remnant patch of mesophyll vine forest right on my doorstep. 2 new trees for me in there - the tar tree or native cashew (Semicarpus australiensis), and an interesting rare palm - Arenga Palm (Arenga australasica). A big-leaved clumping thing - Indo Id - you might know this one?
Heading a little further south to Mission Beach tomorrow. More nice rainforest all around there, hoping to spot a Cassowary soon. Will link up with the local conservation group, and was just looking at their website and came across a short video which might interest y'all on here - see link below. They're doing some good stuff with the rainforest reveg, trialling some more innovative methods.
cheers
Good jungle you got going on there seeds, plenty of hiding spots lol ;)
You on small acerage?
ashsam wrote:Good jungle you got going on there seeds, plenty of hiding spots lol ;)
You on small acerage?
Yeah, he grows an acre at a time Ashsam, he’s in the green belt. AW
Wouldn’t mind 1 acre myself now, build a smaller house, insulate it well and live off the grid. Had a 5 acre block when I moved here was $50k lol, house was $86k to build. Was a bit far from the coast 20 mins, and kids came along so sold it.
Thinking of doing the same on my own block actually. Need my own space. It’s only 2 acres but main house is up top close to road so plenty of spots down the bottom in the scrub.
Our block is 900m2 and house is 370m2 under roof, too big for soon to be 2 of us. Will have 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a rumpus room not being used. Mostly gardens though only takes 25 mins to mow the rest.
When our kids got older we started planting citrus trees lol ;)
Yes GreenJam it has been mild for a while.
Did you spot a Cassowary at Mission? Last place I saw one.
In May was at Mossman Gorge walking the path. A husband and wife were filming something off the path as we approached. When we reached them the object of there fascination was only 2 metres off the path, in the rainforest. We watched for 30 seconds or so, listening to aws and ahs whispered, then asked ‘what are they?’
Baby Cassowary! was the reply.
Trying to disguise a wry smile, I burst their bubble, informing them they were scrub turkeys not Cassowaries and if they were that close to a Cassowary they’d probably be in a world of trouble by now.
ps. they were from West Oz. I hope they saw the real thing on their trip.
Scrub turkeys everywhere here now, even in suburbia, used to only see them near the beach/dunes. My Danish DIL when she was here last year saw one in a beach carpark and asked if that’s someone’s pet, lol ;)
Plague proportions everywhere. Bastards! Very adaptable carrot cakes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-27/brush-turkeys-are-booming-in-urba...
seeds wrote:Plague proportions everywhere. Bastards! Very adaptable carrot cakes.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-27/brush-turkeys-are-booming-in-urba...
Seeds& Ashsam. Now there’s an India rock band if I’ve ever heard of one.
Brush Turkeys .Very very old lineage of megapodes.
Of course we know why. Geez, it’s blatantly obvious.
Favourable conditions.
Opportunistic organism.
We are a wasteful society, also, we prepare veggie gardens, compost heaps for their complete enjoyment.
Love being amongst them , lots to learn from their social and hierarchical behaviours. AW
Males are so aggro, see some ding dong battles here between them.
AW, ashram and Steve. I tracked this down.
Was interesting then as is now. First third is about Magpies then last two about Bush Turkeys. This guy studied the carrot cakes before they even existed in Brisbane let alone where they exist now.
https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/conversations/darryl-jones-rpt/90...
26 minutes of your time.
ps 6 or 7 years ago a magpie couple moved in here. I spent a week feeding them grain free dry cat food. Never since and we’ve never been swooped all these years. They’re always hanging around real close everyday. Eye contact constantly. Friends
cheers Seeds, will give it a listen.
You been out tip toeing through the tulips again today AW?
seeds wrote:You been out tip toeing through the tulips again todays AW?
Seeds. Hi mate.
Yes, last day of periodic wader count, Lake Victoria, Point Lonsdale, coastal estuary scrub.
Pleasing to see so much intact indigenous flora and shitloads of birds, notably 400 Blue-billed Ducks and a plethora of other species. Was beautiful weather .
Time spent in the field is this best, i don’t do indoors very well, except when someone pays me a shitload to install a new kitchen. AW
Cassowary encounter ticked off. Didnt take too long. Went for my first walk in the forest just out of town with the specific intent to see one or more. A beautiful fam palm (Licuala ramsayi) forest - apparently heavily damaged in the most recent big cyclone (Larry I think, maybe Yasi before that - they've had some big ones smash here, the 1858 one sounds like it was a real big one with the storm surge...) - but still an excellent forest with some large trees still around. Anyway, very nice setting, and immediately seeing plenty of 'evidence' of them around (aka, massive turds full of big seeds), so was confident. Did the stroll and when returning to the car there it was just off in the forest a few metres away. We watched each other for quite a while, till I got bored actually, and continued walking. Then came back and it was now out of the bush and on the track, so we got up very close, literally a few m apart. I was wary, but it never seemed threatening, just very curious. I backed off as it continually came towards me. Got a good video of the close encounter. Stoked, an awesome creature. It was apparently a female, easily as tall as me. Big head with that thing on top, and massive, evidently very strong, feet and claws. I cant say I've ever felt it before, but it was a feeling of being in the presence of, staring into the eyes of, a dinosaur.
Plenty of more walks to do, so am expecting more encounters. Haven't done it yet, but will collect some of the pre-digested seeds from some of those turds. Sow them when I get home, and might get some random germination of some random species.
Next on the list is a croc encounter. Never seen one of them in the flesh either. Already been to some what looked like classic croc habitat (mangrove streams near beaches) but alas no luck yet. I guess they are pretty elusive. We'll see... But this is a botany forum, so got to mention the very impressive Melaleucas (I think M. leucodendron) encountered on the Kennedy Track and in Lugger Bay - beautiful spot. I think the biggest I've ever seen. Another interesting littoral forest 'community'
Very good GJ.
The Cassowary encounter sounds epic. I’ve only seen them from the car.
Unlucky on the croc spotting. I saw one near Cape Tribulation and another near Port Douglas just as you suggest, in mangrove creeks near the coast.
Sounds like you’re having fun. It’s wet and miserable down here. Terrible winter
Seems a keen interest for some, so why not.