Australian Bush Life

Common Heath - Epacris impressa. Dark pink flowers.

The Common Heath – Epacris impressa is the state floral emblem of Victoria. This beautiful wildflower has flowers that span over months during spring and range in color from white, light pink through to dark pink.

The Common Heath returned in abundance on our bush block after the bushfire. The first spring after the bushfire these indigenous plants were too small to flower, but this spring, 18 months after the bushfire the flowers have come out in abundance. Although the plants are still small and do not have as many flowers per plant. When fully mature each some plants have between 50 – 100 flowers each.

It’s shrubby form generally does not grow larger than a metre and is commonly seen throughout many bushland habitats. It is also really clearly seen along roadsides especially when flowering it is hard to miss the beautiful display of colors.

Common Heath is a great wildlife food particularly when in flower. It attracts a great range of nectar eating insects and birds. Watching Eastern Spinebills hang off these delicate stems and feed on the flowers is a magic experience.

Common Heath - Epacris impressa. Light pink flowers.

A plant that can generally also be bought in nurseries for planting, we have also had success in transplanting it. After the bushfire we had some coming up on our paths and driveways so decided to move them to bushland and garden areas. Transplanting is best done when young, but generally is successful in the cooler months if you can really take a bit of soil out with the roots.

It is great to substitute to for Spanish Heath, this plant is a weed locally which we see regularly growing in gardens and bushland in our area. Why grow a weed when our locally indigenous Common Heath is so beautiful!

Spanish Heath - Erica lusitanica. Weed.

Spanish Heath – Erica lusitanica is a common weed in the area we live. Growing to bushes about a metre high it is often seen in bushland, peoples gardens and commonly on roadsides. We hadn’t seen this weed before on our bushblock but after the bushfire we noticed the first one so we quickly got to removing it.

Having it seen it around we were always on the lookout for it. The weed must have had seeds come onto our land most likely from birds as the nearest plants are at lease 500 – 1000 metres away. We made sure we quickly removed it before it finished flowering and set seeds. It is easily pulled out by hand when small, but can be cut or sawn off when a bit larger. removing this weed is the best way to avoid having to remove even more weeds from their offspring in the coming years.

Spanish Heath - Erica lusitanica. Flowers.

Prompt vigilance for weeds on our bush block is the best way we can ensure that we continue to have a healthy bushland environment filled with indigenous plants and supporting our local wildlife.

If you live in S-E Australia and you have this weed why not work on replacing it with our local heath the Common Heath – Epacris impressa.  The Common Heath is an indigenous plant and the state floral emblem of Victoria and a beautiful flowering plant for any garden or bush block.

Small-leaved Clematis. Clematis microphylla. Flowers.

Since the bushfires in 2009 there has been a huge recovery of a quite rare climber the Small-leaved Clematis – Clematis microphylla. We had visually noted this plant prior to the bushfires but in the 18 months since the bushfire this plant has come back in abundance.

It was a welcome plant that quickly climbed up over dead limbs of burnt shrubs and bare slopes covering the ground. It is so vigourous that it completely shaded out areas that would have been open to weed invasion. The Small-leaved Clematis has delicate flowers in large numbers over winter and spring that cover the bush for many months – which is really beautiful.

Small-leaved Clematis. Clematis microphylla. Bird friendly climbing plant.

The Small-leaved Clematis was a critical plant for providing thick vegetation cover and shelter for our small bird life to return. We readily noticed the small birds returning about 10 months after the bushfire (Christmas 2009) when plants such as this one were thick enough to provide hiding places for the small birds that visit us like Superb Fairy-wrens. There are many other small birds such as pardalotes, spinebills & thornbills that also are regularly seen diving in and out of this plant.

Small-leaved Clematis is also a Bush Tucker plant with an edible root that can be roasted like a Yam Daisy (Murnong). We haven’t tried eating it though as we need to establish a population for eating purposes in our garden area. At the moment it is in the bush and we are leaving it to the wildlife. But we plan to grow and try harvesting this valuable plant as a food source…stay tuned for this experiment to come.

Common Hovea - Hovea heterophylla flower.

The Common Hovea – Hovea heterophylla is a recent find on our bush block. Although it is a reasonably common plant in our area we hadn’t seen it on our block until this year. It has just been flowering in the last half of August.

Obviously this plant must have been around before the bushfire to drop seed onto the ground but we hadn’t seen it and now all of a sudden we have found a single plant.

Common Hovea - Hovea heterophylla.

This plant is really pretty. Similar to Purple Coral-pea – Hardebergia violacia it is a small shrub but it’s difference is that it is more of a ground cover plant and not a climbing plant. Common Hovea flowers are a slightly lighter purple and the leaves are longer and thinner. This plant is very hardy and drought tolerant. Also like the Purple Coral-pea would attract wildlife.

Common Hovea is also known to be a Bush Tucker plant in that the young pods are edible. We haven’t sampled any yet or really learnt if there is any processsing required prior to eating or if they are just eaten fresh and raw. We still have this to learn.

Purple Cora-pea - Hardenbergia violacea. Flowers.

Well spring appears to be just around the corner again! The shortest day has passed and the next round of wildflowers are coming on now that it is late winter. One of the first to emerge in a full display of purple glory is the Purple Coral-pea – Hardenbergia violacea.

This indigenous plant is a climber, extremely hardy and will flourish in dry and sunny conditions. As with many of the pea family of plants Hardenbergia violacia responded well to the recent bushfire, it’s hard seeds survived the fire and the plants were one of the first to flower in the first winter after the bushfire event. Each plant can sprawl out metres across the ground, it readily droops over garden beds or will also willingly climb anything to reach metres off the ground. The purple flowers are truely striking most especially when the are climbing and flowering simultaneously with a wattle. How nature can provide the contrast of yellow and purple is amazing!

The Purple Cora-pea – Hardenbergia violacea is readily cultivated and sold in nurseries. Warning though if you live on a bush block which has a natural population of this species it is important to not plant out cultivated varieties as they can interbreed with the wild population. Mixing the genetic stock may cause the wild plants to loose their natural charateristics that have made them so tough in their local environment.

Purple Coral-pea – Hardenbergia violacea. Climber.

Often the nusery varieties have been cultivated for features such as size, colour or excessive flowering so can actually be quite different from the orginal wild species. Some nurseries specialising in indigenous plants will maintain the natural genetic qualities from local regions so it is always worthwhile trying to source plants from local indigenous nurseries this way for garden use. Although this is an easy plant to collect seed from and germinate, so their really is no need to buy from nurseries if you already have this plant in the wild.

The purple flowers have a variety of bush tucker uses. The flowers can be eaten raw, they make a great color addition to salads. Additionally the flowers were used to make a purple dye. The leaves can also be boiled to make a sweet tea.

Hardenbergia violacia is also an important plant for our wildlife. On our bush block we have readily seen ants carrying seeds underground and parrots such as King Parrots or Crimson Rosellas landing on the ground to eat the seeds. So if you do harvest seeds or flowers from the wild don’t forget to leave some for the wildlife too!

Cape Weed. Juvenile rosette formation prior to flowering.

Cape Weed is a highly successful weed after a bushfire event – it returned in overwhelming levels with the rosettes that formed in the first recovery year being a metre across. It is comonly found in grazed paddocks particularly those which have had horses. Pigs are quite fond of it a local pig farmer has no Cape Weed on her block yet all her neighbours with horses have large amounts of this weed.

We are working with our neighbours (uphill) who have quite a bit of Cape Weed – Arctotheca calendula. This year we have noticed a few Cape Weed rosettes starting to grow on our bush block since May and at this stage have been able to hand pull these out. Hand pulling is the best technique amongst all the indigenous plants on our block and manageable. But we know that as a long term plan unless we can manage the weed levels next door Cape Weed will just re-infest our block paticularly as we are down hill as seeds can then travel by wind, water or by insects or other animals onto our block.

My neighbours have actually tried chemicals and mowing techniques but this is one tough weed that has a winning strategy for most eradication techniques. Mowing tends to cause the weed to flower really low to the ground below the mowers blade allowing it to flower and seed as usual. Chemical control can help to reduce the amount of flowering (and seeding) of Cape Weed, but unless other controls are used it is a struggle to completely eradicate it this way. The area infected by Cape Weed needs to be replaced by another species or other ground cover to really reduce the ability of this weed to take hold through competition – as Cape Weed loves bare ground.

Cape Weed reduction using carpets to cover the weed.

Some techniques used in permaculture have helped us, such as cover weeds with weeds and let them compete against each other. From this technique we have been most succesful using a covering technique. Simply covering weedy areas with old carpets we have found free on the hard waste or simply covering with black plastic, tin or anything else that will block out light (and water as best as possible). The earlier the covering rotation is started the better, from about May onwards. Once they flower around August it is all to late to have really successful reduction as they will seed.

No plants can survive without light, but we have found that our indigenous grassy plants such as Weeping Grass, Wallaby Grass, Flax Lillies (Dianella’s), Saw Sedge (Gahnia’s) and Mat Rushes (Lomandra) actually have the ability to bounce back if not covered for too long. Covering for about 3 weeks is enough to completely eliminate Cape Weed, but the indigenous plants although they may have turned yellow have tough roots and mostly have the ability to recover from this treatment.

Once the Cape Weed has died off it is important to replace the now bare soil as otherwise Cape Weed will just return. For instance our neighours would like to retain a grassy paddock for grazing but don’t want more weedy pasture grasses which are infesting their natural bush so have seeded bare areas (where Cape Weed was removed) with indigenous wallaby grasses and Weeping Grass. The seed collected from these indigenous grasses on their block whilst they seeded over the late summer months. They can mow and maintain these indigeous grasses as a lawn or for pasture for stock or fowl.

We also know that we won’t eliminate Cape Weed this year, but we now have a plan that is working and each year we hope to reduce the amount of infested area. We also know that we can’t give up as this will just give the Cape Weed the chance it needs to return to a thriving state.

Erosion control with logs, twigs and leaf litter laid across the slope.

Our block is quite steep and after the bushfire when we had lost all our vegetation cover we had some issues with erosion. The best erosion control is keeping vegetation structure in place from larger trees, to shrubs and groundcovers these all work to hold the soil together. About 3 weeks after the bushfire we had a large rain event and we have never experienced so much soil and ash filling up drains, gutters and just getting washed away.

Erosion from water flow after heavy rainfall still causes some problems even 1.5 years after much of our indigenous vegetation has regrown since the bushfire. To help our bush recover and reduce the impacts of erosion we have ensured that we left any logs and leaf litter on the ground. After the bushfire event there was a reduced amount of logs and leaf litter available as much was burnt.  We collected as much as we could of this resource off neighbours or local council / road authorities who cut trees on road reserves. Many of our neighbours cut down trees after the bushfire, often piling these trees up to be burnt as waste, this ”tidying up” actually increases the chance of erosion.

Logs trap soil, moss acts as a coloniser plant for revegetation.

We still continue to use logs to reduce erosion laying them across the slope to slow down the speed of the water. Some needed to be dug in a litte to help them stabilise. Along with small twigs and leaf litter they collect the soil and any available seeds (many indigenous plants have seeds that survive bushfire) allowing small micro-habitats where revegetation can occur. The logs and leaf litter also provide habitat for small wildlife. On picking up a log I will usually always find ants, beetles, slaters and even skinks, frogs or scorpions. A pity leaf litter and logs, ground habitat, is targetted as a bushfire risk and heavily “tidied” up by many people.

Finally I was in the right place at the right time. Wombats leave evidence of their presence, new wombat poos are around every morning, but we rarely see them. On this evening at dusk I just happened to be out with my camera in the local area and spotted a wombat who walked right past me. They are the cutest and funniest of wildlife that we have visiting our bushblock.

Wombats are herbivores and on our bushblock mostly graze on grasses. They really like the indigenous Weeping Grass – Microlaeana Stipoides and the wallaby grass species on our block a favorite is Velvet Wallaby-grass – Austrodanthonia pilosa. By having these herbivores around they are our sustainable lawn mowers - which we love!

Crimson Rosella eating Cotton Fireweed.

The indigenous plants called “fireweeds” or scientifically known as ”senecio spp.” live up to their namesake as they do love fire! We have had huge numbers of fireweeds sprout up since the bushfire over a year ago as they love disturbance and are a typical plant to colonise newly opened areas of soil. Unfortunately for their namesake and appearance they do look and sound weedy. Many people have unfortunately removed this plant from their gardens but they are an indigenous plant and a very important food plant for our wildlife particularly rosella’s.

The most common species on our block is called Cotton Fireweed or Senecio quadridentatus. Cotton Fireweed’s on our bushblock have been continually flowering from spring until autumn. They have been a staple food supply for our local rosella’s who visit and eat the flowers and seeds from these plants daily.

Eastern Rosella eating Cotton Fireweed.

We are glad that we have had the chance to notice the importance of this plant as a food supply for wildlife. We will ensure that we have an abundance of fireweeds in the future to entice our native parrots to visit us on our bush block. We don’t need to provide them with bought seeds or other types of bought food, just observe the indigenous plants they love to eat and ensure we have these around our home where we can enjoy the birds as they visit.

Calystegia marginata - Forest Bindweed with flower.

Forest Bindweed – Calystegia marginata is an indigenous plant that forms climbing vines. It can also make a great groundcover plant as it will vigorously grow over the ground or climb up any plants if they are available. We had never seen this plant on our bush block prior to the bushfire. But there must have been a large seed bank in the soil that survived the bushfire as we now have a large area completely covered in Forest Bindweed.

Calystegia marginata - Forest Bindweed as ground cover plant.

This has been a very useful indigenous ground cover plant for us covering bare soil areas and helping us to reduce weed infestations. It has taken over an area on a steep bank that used to be full of weedy grasses. We hand pulled as many of these weedy grasses out as we could, but not much else would grow on this steep slope. The Forest Bindweed has climbed over the whole slope and thickly covered the area. It can also be easily trimmed back from areas where it becomes too vigorous.

Forest Bindweed – Calystegia marginata has beautiful little white flowers which are present for many months over spring and summer. It also makes great habitat cover for wildlife particularly small birds and reptiles and attracts insects to it’s pretty flowers.