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March NewsletterAustralian Plants Society
Wilson Park (Berwick) Inc.Inc. A0028350T March, 2015 ABN 69 324 096 622
Website for Australian Plants Society Victoria is www.apsvic.org.auWebsite for APS Wilson Park (Berwick) Inc. is www.apswilsonparkberwick.org.au
March 2015 Newsletter — Page 1
Casuarina glauca ‘Cousin It’Previously called Casuarina glauca (prostrate form)
Casuarina glauca ‘Cousin It’ nom. cult.Casuarinas are often called ‘native pines’ because their foliage bears a similarity to pine needles. Individual plants are either male or female, but unlike the conifers they bear resemblance to they are in fact true flowering plants. The Casuarinaceae family is native to Australia, southeast Asia and islands of the Pacific.Casuarina glauca is commonly called the ‘Swamp Oak’ due to the wood’s oak-like appearance and natural occurrence near brackish waterways. The prostrate form is a non-flowering curio originating at Bulli south of Sydney. The bark is grey-brown and scaly, with stems growing horizontally to mould over surfaces. The reason for its form and failure to produce flowers is unclear. However many other coastal heath plants, such as Banksia and Themeda similarly produce prostrate forms.This selected prostrate form of Casuarina glauca is being marketed as Casuarina glauca ‘Cousin It’, strangely named from a character in the TV series ‘The Addams Family’ featuring a group of fictional characters created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. The series ran 1964-1966 and 1973-1975. The character’s name was actually ‘Cousin Itt’ with two ‘t’s.Cuttings were taken from plants near Booderee National Park in 1989 and are now established in Canberra’s Australian National Botanic Gardens, where they cover the ground with dense spreading foliage creating sanctuary for reptiles and invertebrates. The thick litter layer produced retains moisture, retards soil erosion and suppresses the germination of other species.Elsewhere, the form can create useful traps for wind blown sand or salt and cultivated Casuarina glauca stems have been used in reasonably nutritious recipes for chicken feed!The leaves, or ‘teeth’, are very small and form rings at intervals along the stems, which are the chlorophyll containing and photosynthetic parts of the plant. Wax covered and deeply grooved, they provide the plant with attributes to withstand drying environments, such as coastal heath.
Page 2 — March 2015 Newsletter
Soil conditions from arid to waterlogged are tolerated and nitrogen availability is facilitated by Frankia species of soil bacteria. Soil pH between 6 - 8 seems to favour root nodule formation. Heavy frost can kill the top layers of the foliage but the stems reshoot readily in spring .Pests may include fruit emulating gall ‘coccoids’ and Cuckoo Spit scale in Queensland. Perna exposita is a hairy brown caterpillar that can ringbark stems with its feeding habits. They drop to the ground when disturbed, so beating the shrub to collect caterpillars for removal may be all that’s required to control these pests in a garden setting.Its cascading form may be highly suitable for appreciation and containment in hanging baskets and planter boxes.Derivation of the name: Casuarina glauca ‘Cousin It’Casuarina - is derived from the Malay “Kasuari” or “Cassowary” which refers to the likeness of the plant’s thin drooping stems and leaves to the feathers of this great bird.glauca- from the Greek “glaukos” describes the blue-green colour of its foliage.ReferencesEl Lakany, E.H. (1991) Casuarina glauca: a hardy tree with many attributes. A quick guide to useful nitrogen fixing trees from around the world. NFT Highlights NFTA 91-05, July 1991.
Casuarina glauca ‘Cousin It’ – continued
This photo is of a praying mantis on a sturt desert pea. The plant is a new more
upright variant on the prostrate one.It is an annual, and flowered several times before being ringbarked by snails.This is an Australian plant in the genus Swainsona, named after English botanist Isaac Swainson, famous for its distinctive blood-red leaf-like flowers, each with a bulbous black centre, or “boss”. It is one of Australia’s best known wildflowers. It is native to the arid regions of central and north-western Australia, and its range extends into all mainland Australian states with the exception of Victoria.The common name honours Charles Sturt, who recorded seeing large quantities of the flowers while exploring central Australia in 1844; the second version of the scientific name honours the naturalist Isaac Swainson, and the third (rejected) version of the scientific name was intended to honour the explorer William Dampier.The fruit is a legume, about 5 centimetres long, and each yields 50 or more flat, kidney-shaped seeds at maturityMost forms of the plant are low-growing or prostrate, however in the Pilbara region of north-western Australia varieties growing as tall as 2 metres have been observed.
— Photo by Cindy Tomachel, Article from google.
Swainsona formosa, Sturt’s Desert Pea
March 2015 Newsletter — Page 3
Thank you to Facey’s Wholesale Nursery for their ongoing support in
donating plants towards our raffle
Shows, Conferences, Plant Sales, Open Gardens for 2015
21 March APS Victoria Committee of Management (COM) meeting hosted by APS Victoria at Royal Botanic Gardens Cranbourne (RBGC), 10.00 am.25 March to 29 March MIFGS participation with RHSV, Carlton Gardens.11 &12 April: – APS Geelong at ‘Wirrawilla’, 40 Lovely Banks Road, Lovely Banks. Mel 431D6. 11 & 12 April: – The Victorian Native Bonsai Club presents the 4th Symposium on Australian Natives as Bonsai at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. Registration is $50 per day or $80 for weekend. The theme is “Natives – A Victorian Perspective” and topics include acacias, demonstrations on Moonah and Coastal Tea Tree and a discussion on styling Australian plants as Bonsai. See website www.vicnativebonsai.com.au for more details.
Design the 2015 Native Plant Sale Flyer
A sub-committee has been formed to co-ordinate the preparation of our 2015 Native Plant Sale, which will be held on Saturday, September 5. We would like to canvas the creative flair of our
group and for those of you who are interested “have a go” at designing this year’s flyer. There are two paper sizes you might consider working with, namely:A4 size (210mm x 297mm) which would be good to put in shop windows and/orDL size (100mm x 210mm) that are a convenient to mail or hand out to interested partiesContent of the flyers will not be confirmed for several months so feel free to adlib the information within the flyer.You may present your submission in person at our March meeting to Judy Millington and/or email a PDF version to [email protected] for consideration of the sub-committee. You may be asked for the original file in case it is selected so that it may be updated with the confirmed content at a later date.We were a bit optimistic putting a deadline of our March meeting but are keen to extend it by a couple of months.
We now have our very own Australian Plants Society - Wilson Park Berwick Facebook page which may be accessed by the following link: https://www.facebook.com/APSWilsonParkBerwick.
This page in no means replaces our website (http://www.apswilsonparkberwick.org.au/) but it will provide us another means to advertise what we are about and what we are doing. The page is still in its infancy so in a month or two we hope to have a bit more to share.I would like to add a cover page and a few photos to the Facebook timeline. If you have images of the car park garden, Wilson Botanic Park in general (including birdlife etc), images of our Spring Plant Sale and events attended I would appreciate them being emailed to [email protected] If you could try and keep the size under 2Mb that would be ideal. If you could accompany some words describing the images that would be great.
Our own facebook page
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Thank you to Cardinya View Nursery for bringing along a selection of tubestock for
members to purchase.
Diary Dates for 2015DATE: TIME: SPEAKER
TUESDAY, MARCH 10: 8.00pm Speaker Philip Vaughan on propagation/ grafting evening.
TUESDAY, APRIL 14: 8.00pm Mick Van de Vreede from Parks Vic. (Lysterfield).
TUESDAY, MAY 12: 8.00pm Speaker to be confirmed. Subject Birds?
TUESDAY, JUNE 9: 8.00pm Trevor Blake, Plants for dry shady places.
TUESDAY, JULY 14: NO MEETING MID-WINTER
TUESDAY. AUGUST 11: 8.00pm AGM, followed by a Buy, Swap, Sell, bring plants/divisioons rooted cuttings.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8: 8.00pm Our members, Spring gardens and preparing for Summer.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13: 8.00pm Speaker will be Rodger Elliot, speaking on bush foods. Talk and taste evening.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10: 8.00pm Vince Davey from our sponsor Neutrog.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8: CHRISTMAS BREAKUP.
Garden VisitsSATURDAY, MARCH 14: 2.00pm Visit to the Friends of Cranbourne Botanic Gardens Nursery.
SUNDAY, MARCH 15: 2.00pm Alex and Wendy Smart’s garden in Beaconsfield.
All articles for the newsletter are very welcome and should be sent to Joy Buck at 13 Anchorage Drive, Blind Bight, 3980 or email [email protected] by the first of the month.If sending photos via email please make sure they are in their natural format jpeg.
