Australian Bush Life

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.

Bidgee-widgee. Acaena novae-zelandiae. With burr - seed head.

Bidgee-widgee – Acaena novae-zelandiae is a ground cover that many people would recognise due to the burr seed heads it produces after the pretty white flowers. Yep the ones that stick in your socks! Bidgee-widgee is an extremely good ground cover plant, spreading across the ground and covering bare soil areas and reducing potential weed invasion. It also readily returns after bushfire. We have even seen it being eaten by local wildlife particularly Black Wallabies – Wallabia bicolor, with the burrs sticking around their mouths while they eat them.

Bidgee-widgee. Acaena novae-zelandiae. Flower.

An important indigenous plant in bushland that can also be planted in garden beds, it will even trail down over the edge of beds forming pretty hanging trails. Also good in garden areas that aren’t readily walked over to avoid the burrs.

Roots of Bushtucker plant Foothill Yam-daisy. Microseris lanceolata. Murnong (Wurundjeri).

In addition to experimenting with eating Murnong or the Foothill Yam Daisy – Microseris lanceolata on the BBQ this summer we tried roasting it. This round we harvested in early March there is still the odd flower on the plant but it has really slowed down and this is supposed to be a good time to harvest it. The last harvest for the BBQ was a month ago.

Roast Murnong (Wurundjeri) - Foothill Yam-daisy. Microseris lanceolata.

We pulled out the largest Murnong we had and this was worthwhile as the root system was much bigger than the last round we tried, maybe an extra month in the ground had also allowed the Murnong to store more in its roots prior to winter coming. We simply cleaned the roots with water and then added them to our roast meal just like all the other vegetables. The texture great and taste again was quite delicious as it was roasted alongside sprigs of rosemary and onions.

Indigenous Ground Cover. Ivy-leaf Violets - Viola hederacea. A bush tucker plant.

For all the same reasons and similar to the indigenous ground cover plant Kidney-weed – Dichondra repens, Ivy-leaf Violet – Viola hederacea is a also great indigenous ground cover plant. Ivy-leaf Violet – Viola hederacea is drought tolerant and holds a lovely form, green foliage all year around. Pretty little mauve and white flowers are abundant and continue flowering for months over the spring and summer. Another great lawn alternative, for low foot traffic areas and a fantastic weed suppressor as it has 100% ground coverage aving no bare ground for weeds to take hold.

Viola hederacea. Ivy-leaf Violet flowers can be eaten raw as bushtucker.

The flowers are also edible bushtucker food, eaten raw can add color and interest to any salad. Harvest only some of the flowers to ensure the plant reproduces and to leave some for the wildlife too!

Burchardia umbellata - Milkmaids after bushfire

More beautiful indigenous plants Milkmaids -  Burchardia umbellata and Early Nancies – Wurmbea dioica, that returned in huge numbers the spring after the bushfire event. All the indigenous plants, the lillies on our bush block are also

Wurmbea dioica - Early Nancies after bushfire

bushtucker plants. The underground tubers can be dug up after the flowering and fruiting season and eaten. Currently we don’t eat the lillies out of our indigenous bush as we are leaving them as habitat for wildlife, but in the future we may try to grow lillies in our bushtucker garden for eating purposes.

River Mint - Mentha australis. Indigenous bush tucker plant.

River Mint – Mentha australis is a really easy to grow, harvest and use bush tucker plant. Actually just like other mint plants it needs to be harvested regularly or it can take over an area quite quickly. River Mint is an indigenous plant that is great as a ground cover. Our plant was completely burnt in the bushfire but regrew itself from underground rhizomes (roots). After a bushfire plants like River Mint are really important as they cover the ground providing shelter to the bare soil and habitat for insects and other small reptiles like skinks to return after the bushfire.

River Mint - Mentha australis. Flowers.

For eating just harvest the leaves direct, wash and use as you would other mints. They are fantastic added to hot water as an infusion (tea) or also to roasts for a yummy minty flavour to your meat and vegetables.

Glossodia major - Wax-lip Orchid after bushfire

Here are 2 orchids that we saw in the spring after the bushfire. Wax-lip Orchid - Glossodia major is one of the dominant orchids on our block. We saw the Wax-lip Orchid - Glossodia major before the bushfire but it was in a far greater abundance

Calochilus robertsonii - Purplish Beard-orchid after bushfire

 after the bushfire. On the other hand we had never see the Purplish Beard-orchid – Calochilus robertsonii on our block before the bushfire and only saw 1 specimen in spring this year, what an exciting new treat.

Hopefully next year we will have a greater diversity of orchids as in general bushfire stimulates their regeneration and it may take a few seasons after the bushfire event until you get to see the full diversity of orchids that have been stimulated by a bushfire.

Other wildflowers after bushfire…..

Foothill Yam-daisy flowers. Microseris lanceolata. Bushtucker - Murnong.

We harvested and ate our first round of Foothill Yam-daisy – Microseris lanceolata in early February. Foothill Yam-daisy, known as Murnong in local aboriginal (Wurundjeri) language. This species once covered most of Victoria & was a staple food supply of aboriginals over the state. It would have been beautiful to see the land covered in these beautiful plants with pretty yellow flowers over many months.

Foothill Yam-daisy root and plant. Microseris lanceolata. Bushtucker - Murnong.

Foothill Yam-daisy – Microseris lanceolata has dissapeared from large areas of Victoria mostly through grazing which was introduced when white settlement occurred through the 1800′s. Cattle and sheep either ate the plants or trampled the ground so that the ground hardened and became unsuitable for the tuberous roots of Foothill Yam-daisies.

We used a small shovel and dug out the whole plant, the underground tuberous root is the eating part. Mostly the Murnong had finished flowering so we just spread the seeds in the garden bed area for the next seasons bushtucker plants for us to eat. We simply washed the tuberous roots and decided to put them on the BBQ as that was what we were doing for dinner. They had a nice texture and were quite tasty as they were cooked alongside some meat and onions.

Click to view post on roasting Murnong (Wurundjeri)……….