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Barbara Henderson
Sometimes I take a little ramble around my garden, just to see what is surviving from the many plant rescues I have done over the past seven years, and what is in flower. There is always a flower or two to be found, all year round, and just now there are lots of buds, and I hope for a little bit of Wallum colour soon. I've rescued plants from many places since early 1992, and I can ramble around and find plants from Burpengary & Morayfield, Bribie Island & Ningi, Beerwah & Beerburrum, and the Sunshine Coast - Marcoola and Peregian Beach.
Most of the places where I found the plants are now either under introduced grasses, or domestic gardens, and sometimes even roads and roundabouts. I am often in the lucky situation of being able to rescue plants from a variety of places. The bulk of the rescues however, have come from the Quinn development "Mt. Coolum Shores" at Marcoola, south of Coolum Beach, during the period between spring of 1993 and summer of 1997.
Surviving from the first effort at Emu Swamp, pre-Motorway, I have two lovely Melaleuca thymifolia, a couple of Hibbertia acicularis, Dianella spp., Lomandra sp., Leucopogon virgatum and some grasses. Sadly, most of the other little treasures gradually died off. From Bribie Island, Leucopogon pimelioides (syn. L. lanceolatus var. gracilis) is now a shrub to almost 2m, while another small Leucopogon sp. continues to flower each year.
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| Blue Flax Lilly Dianella caerulea. Family Liliaceae. |
The first Marcoola rescue is recalled by a strong Banksia robur which flowered well last year, a compact Homoranthus virgatus just coming into bloom, the red Callistemon pachy-phyllus, one Leptospermum semi-baccatum with white flowers, some ferny Selaginella, a Lomandra sp., and one of the tall Wallum grasses. The losses here were sad - a lovely Hibbertia linearis, Epacris obtusifolia, the yellow peas of Dillwynia floribunda and Pultenaea paleacea and Sowerbaea juncea, but the dazzling Marcoola Hibbertia vestita remains.
Subsequent Marcoola relocations have included Patersonia fragilis, P. sericea, Caesia parviflora, Haemodorum tenuifolium, Pseudanthus orientalis, Leptospermum juniperinum, L. liversidgei, L. semibaccatum, Pimelea linifolia, Xyris complanata, Boronia falcifolia, Goodenia stelligera. A prostrate Persoonia sp. still lives, but has to be positively identified - it has potential as a marvellous groundcover, and I found Burchardia umbellata (Milkmaids) sprouting. Left alone, some plants do recover, even a couple of years after they appear to have vanished completely, and some Wallum Study Group members have found seedlings of long-gone plants.
The Ningi rescue was a short one, for only one reason, as the ownership of the property could not be satisfactorily established after the initial effort, and we did not like to be trespassing. But some plants are still in their little "patch" in the garden. A large Homoranthus virgatus is presently full of bud, a Blechnum fern is running along the garden edge, and Epacris pulchella goes from strength to strength, but due to shading, does not flower as it should. An early loss was Boronia safrolifera, a beautiful species, but Goodenia paniculata does return at times.
Roadside rescues from the Beerburrum area included Acacia ulicifolia, which died out, but a Chrysocephalum apiculatum has gone berserk. From the Beerburrum region, I am delighted with Aotus ericoides and Gompholobium virgatum, both in flower at the moment (early August). Grevillea leiophylla and Goodenia bellidifolia from my daughter's Burpengary block continue to survive, brought home with Hibbertia vestita way back in 1988.
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| Vanilla Lilly Sowerbaea juncea. Family Liliaceae |
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