Little Evodia Evodiella muelleri
attacts Fig birds , Orioles, Satin & Regent bower birds , Ring tail possoms when in fruit ,but also food source for many honeyeaters , lorrikeets , feathertail glider when flowering. It's fast growing and starts to fruit after two to three years and is native. Grows to a max of 5 to 6 metres.
Also a food plant for larvae of the blue Ulysses butterfly
Looks great. How long did it take to have those masses of fruit? Is it fast growing? Will it grow anywhere? Sorry Darin, three questions
M-L
Yes it is fast growing. As I said above it takes two to three years . Not sure as to how far south it grows. It is native to north QLD.
sorry ML it fruits in two to three years
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Only native to rainforest from the Clarence river north. Otherwise it is an exotic. The current name is Melicope elleryana.
That's a good distinction you make between native and indigenous, Greg.
Often "native" is used to simply mean "Australian", rather than native to a specific location. Some native plants planted outside their original location can be equally invasive as foreign exotics.
For example, the umbrella tree and Cadaghi (Corymbia torelliana), which are both native to north Qld, tend to be somewhat invasive in Brisbane.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
Can we swap a few of your Ringtail Possums for say a few hundred of our Brushtail Possums? Love the birds, love the tree.
Dale Huonville, Tasmania
You're so right, Timmo. In some parts of SA the "native to Australia" Golden Wreath Wattle Acacia saligna has invaded roadsides & excluded "indigenous" vegetation. It's indigenous mainly to coastal parts of south west WA. One of its great claims to fame is that after it's destroyed the seeds keep regenerating for 20 or more years so outside its indigenous location eternal vigilance is the price of freedom from Acacia saligna. This is why the distinction between "native" & "indigenous" is so important to make.
muelleri...after Baron Ferdinand von Mueller, 19th century botanist - first government botanist for Victoria.
General Description:
Evodiella is a small genus of about five species, one of which (Evodiella muelleri) extends into northern Australia. The genus is a member of the Rutaceae family, which includes the boronias and correas as well as citrus fruits, some of which also reach in Australia.
Photo: Richard Logan
Evodiella muelleri is generally a small, grey-barked tree to about 6 metres with glossy green, trifoliate leaves up to 75 mm long. Clusters of bright pink flowers occur along the branches during summer and these are followed by green, citrus-like fruits which grow to about 30-40mm in length and breadth. Birds such as lorikeets and honeyeaters are said to be attracted to this plant. In addition it is one of the food trees for the Ulysses butterfly
I don't know. The branches are greatly different.
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Melicope~elleryana
If it attracts birds like that, the streets should be lined with them. (in their native area)
I tend to agree, richman. There's huge scope in towns, cities, new housing estates & along country roadsides for the planting of indigenous trees, shrubs & grasses & other understorey plants. Roundabouts & street verges could be planted with understorey plants & their seeds used in revegetation projects. This would be of great benefit to our native birdlife in particular & wildlife in general. I have fantasies about being a phantom street revegetator in modern housing estates which are replete with exotic species, at least in SA.
I can see the headlines.
PHANTOM STREET VEGETATOR STRIKES AGAIN - 12 streets planted with regenerative native species. Captured CCTV footage of masked and hooded culprit in what looks like purple tights performing amazing feats worthy of television gardening show speeds. How the perpetrator kept that bobcat silent is unknown.
Instead town planners use those annoying northern hemisphere plane trees. I know how agravated I get at seeing those and sneezing at their dust blown up my nose and blinded by it in my eyes.
That would be wrinkled purple tights, richman.
Birds that eat the fruit disperse many seeds from other sites/plants and for me this is my seed bank. Try going to your local nursery and buy emdemic plants for your area, it's not an easy task! I have managed to collect and regenerate my garden and the surrounding area with the seedling from the base of this tree which include the following endemic plants: sandpaper fig ficus fraseri, lolly bush clerodendrum floribundum, hard corkwood Endiandra sieberi , holly gum neolitsea dealbata, blue quandong elaeocarpus grandis, breynia oblongifolia and my favourite, celerywood polyscias elegans another pioneer plant that attracts flocks of birds with its fruit. There are many more, too numerous to list...My garden is a bird friendly garden and is based on shelter and fruiting trees.For a an "exotic" plant it's around 4 hours from its endemic area and with migrating fruit eating birds fighting a battle against sea changes, the birds need all the help they can get! After all this plant is an open branched pioneer plant and mainly grows in disturbed areas - but the benefits are great.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
I often find it difficult to determine whether a plant is local to my area or not.
Many years ago nearly all of the bush was cleared from the land where I live (s.e. slopes of Mt Lofty Ranges, SA) with only small roadside remnants remaining. As well, where I live is right smack between the wetter areas of the Ranges & the mallee country. Often plants that I'm considering as part of my understorey project are present in both the the wetter areas of the Ranges & the mallee so I consider it likely that these plants were once local to me. For other species our property seems to be at the edge of their natural range.
So quite often, especially with understorey plants, it's a matter of judgement as to whether I plant them or not. It's easier with trees because these are almost always the species left along roadsides after the devestation of almost total land clearance.
I can imagine, Darin, that the task of deciding if a plant species is indigenous to an area is made even more difficult in the tropics because so many tree species are regenerated from seeds being transported by birds quite long distances.
Has anybody seen a Little Evodia growing as far south as Sydney? In particular does it flower in Sydney? I've been looking for this information everywhere and so far haven't found it. It would be great to know before I go and plant a few. They're very beautiful when flowering in Queensland.
Cheers,
Dave
Hi Dave. According to the Australian Native Plants Society website "Distribution:Lowland and Highland forest, from Iron Range in the north to the Atherton Tableland in the south. It also extends into Papua New Guinea." So it doesn't grow naturally in the Sydney area.
Unless it's cultivated and can survive locally, I would assume.
Yes, what I meant to ask is will Little Evodia survive and look good (ie flower satisfactorily) if I plant it in Sydney in a favorable spot in my garden.
Actually it would have to be perhaps the most attractive of Australian shrubs, so if it can survive in Sydney then I guess some gardeners have already planted them here.
Anybody seen one in Sydney?
Cheers,
Dave
Dave, what would be your motive in planting this species in Sydney rather than a species local to your area & which would therefore perform a more important ecological function?
Hi Woko, sorry if I sound bit of an environmental vandal, but I just love the look of this particular shrub. Heh, lots of folk around here are planting azalea, photinia and agapanthus still. We're in a reasonably dense part of suburbia, so the native bird varieties around here is limitted to the tough survivors - currawong, noisy mynah, kookaburras, etc. I don't think anything I do in my garden will change that. On the positive side I've removed 4 rather ugly big pine trees from my back yard and planted a few bottlebrush, grevillea, lillypillies, etc. When we bought here two years ago the old garden was a rather tired and sad sight.
But you may well be correct in the sense that if Little Evodia is too far out of its comfort zone, then it may perform poorly, get diseases etc. And that's exactly the kind of information that I'm looking for - I mean if I can ascertain that that is the case then of course I will consider planting something else.
Cheers,
Dave
I guess I'm of the view that while your effort might not make much difference to the ecology of your neighbourhood, even one plant can be the beginning of change. Besides, who knows what native birds an indigenous native might attract that could spark interest within a neighbourhood. From little things big things grow.
In addition to to the species' survivability in Sydney the other important issue is whether Little Evodia is invasive. Being a native of northern Queensland it may well produce seeds that could be carried by birds into native bushland. This, in my opinion, would be a tragedy.
Hi David
Why not plant a tree ?
Exotic trees can help can fill the gap , with some trees only coming into to fruit or seed ever two / three years . Some birds have the narrowest diet possible and by the time that the native trees have grown to their mature stage the birds or other living things have died out or vanished from that area .
On the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia the last few yellow - tailed black cockatoos depend on an exotic seed, Aleppo pine, but just like she oak needles (casurina) they choke the bushland floor.
Anyway back to your question - these trees will grow well in a nice sunny spot and out of the wind and will bring many birds and create a bird friendly garden to enjoy - and to me that is what it is all about .
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
I have found this discussion about delineation of indigenous/exotic/introduced plant species interesting and I am amused about how what would seem like an innocuous posting can "draw crabs". I don't have enough knowledge to contribute meaningfully to the subject but I have no reason to suspect that the line taken by Woko is not gospel. In a perfect world. But I wonder, in our very imperfect world, whether its better to plant non-indigenous species that provide food and habitat to native birds rather than plant nothing at all, given the millions of hectares of farming land in the country stripped of every tree and the loss of thousands of acres of good suburban soil to pavement, lawns and roses. My biggest concern is that the everyday suburban householder is more likely to resort to pavement, lawns and roses if, in their desire to "go native", they are expected to research species indigenous to their area, try to locate them and then plant them exclusively. Of course councils and nurseries should promote indigenous species. In a perfect world.
Hi darinnightowl,
Well Little Evodia was a shrub that just caught my eye, and is an appropriate size for my limitted space.
Also I think there is a bit of confusion in this thread about the name. Little Evodia's current botanical name is MELICOPE RUBRA. It used to be called Evodiella Muelleri. And note that Melicope Elleryana is a different species, about double the size, sometimes called big evodia. Both Little and Big Evodia are Australian rainforest natives and are the foods of the Blue Ulysees Butterfly. Both are sold online by Daleys - see http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/buy/melicope-rubra-little-evodia-tree.htm.
Cheers,
Dave
The question "Is it good to plant something, even an exotic, rather than nothing?" is a good one.
The answer is probably yes if the planter has no other choice. However, so often there are local species available & Google et al, at least, can point many people in their direction. Also, there are many local environment groups which know about indigenous plant species. Many local councils can provide information about local environmental groups. Some even have information about the local species. But whether or not the planter spends time & energy on the research to seek out information on indigenous plants depends, perhaps, on his/her motivation.
From what I've observed many people are motivated by what looks bright & colourful, what appeals to them, what their parents grew or what reminds them of home. So in such cases I think it can be said the motivation is centred on the self rather than the environment.
If the motivation is restoration or partial restoration (because in so many destroyed natural environments we'll never be able to precisely replicate the original community of plants) then the planter will be very likely to seek out species indigenous to the area. The advantages of ecological restoration are many but, fundamentally, I would argue that it promotes biodiversity which is what we all depend on for our existence. So it can be argued, perhaps, that in the broad sense, even being motivated to ecologically restore an area is centred on the self or centred on the species Homo sapiens.
I do cop criticism from time to time for this stance but I've also observed that there's a growing awareness that unless we begin protecting & restoring our natural ecologies then as a species we'll continue on a very bad path. But if a person believes that the natural environment isn't endangered or hasn't been way too much compromised then clearly planting indigenous species isn't an issue for that person.
Finally, if someone is intent on planting non-indigenous species then it would surely be more environmentally ethical to plant non-invasive species to ensure that what remains of our shrinking natural areas isn't further compromised.
Given that Little Evodia is well known in Queensland, and given that quite a few people consider it to be the most beautiful Australian flowering shrub, and given there's about 2 million backyards in Sydney, and given that anybody can buy these shrubs online then I'm inclined to believe that heaps of people have tried growing it in Sydney before me. Anybody out there tried?
Thanks,
Dave
I came across this quote today:
" The exotic vegetation that replaces indigenous plant communities in urbanising regions, disassociates us from the rhythms and diversity of the native landscape and a sense of the place; and we are the poorer because of it."
Michael Hough, Professor of Landscape Architecture, York University, Canada
Good one Woko and very true if one thinks about it. But if exotic vegetation in our urbanising regions leaves us poorer, NO vegetation (ie pavement, lawns and roses) must leave us absolutely raggy-arsed.
Pity about David's search for a Sydney Evodia grower. Perhaps he might have better luck on a gardening forum.
Thanks Night Parrot,
Well I got a partial answer from Daleys Fruit Forum - and that is that somebody planted one in Melbourne and it grew 3 ft in the second year, but no details about quality - eg will it flower properly. (See http://www.daleysfruit.com.au/forum/little-evodia1/) I tried a couple of other garden forums too.
Well while Little Evodia isn't indigenous to Sydney I'd say getting rid of my eight ugly pine trees plus 6 half dead viburnum tinus shrubs and planting a mix of natives and fruit trees could be said to be increasing diversity, and I don't think I've made anybody poorer - that I'm aware of; in fact the opposite. But ok, most of the natives planted so far weren't inigenous to Sydney - I planted grevillea, bottle brush, cordyline stricta, lilly pilly, etc - sorry, some were hybrid creations.
Actually I think a mono-culture hedge - eg photinia or murraya - makes the neighbourhood poorer. It's just in lieu of a brick wall.
There are many things that have altered the landscape of where we we all chose to live. The land has been cleared for roads to travel on, to get to services that we all need to survive or just for our own convenience - We need fuel just as nature does!
Wildlife faces a harder time to travel around following insects or plants for food but having a convenient food source certainly helps them to survive - but the most important thing is water.
I would like to challenge anyone to try emptying his or her bird bath and watch how the birds behave. They will move on or only spend a quarter of the time in your yard. So if you live in an area with no gullies or natural catchment to retain water then your land is meant for fly through only - you could say to eat & run, but not take up residence.
Check out any bird list of national parks and remote areas and it will have
Residents, Visitor, or Vagrants for the last two, ask yourself why - Is it food or water?
So a birdbath to me is a change of habitat. Water just makes it easy to hang around. So explain the difference between a birdbath and native weed that is not indigenous. A birdbath is not a natural water source, but an artificial one.
Woko, you wrote about the firetails that feed on the winter grass weeds on your lawn with enjoyment and showed photos of how a big lizard lives between the sheet metal, which is a great habitat when old logs are not there anymore, but not natural either. The work and research you have done, the photos I've seen are a credit to you. Nature is trying to hang on any way it can, even on your land.
Australia has poor soil, which supports limited natural food and water, which is in short supply in most areas. Because of this the birds must move onto the next area, which could be many kilometres away. So with two hundred years of urban sprawl, farms, logging land, clearing and more often now, BIG fires, they need all the help they can get by us planting and/or supplying water to get them from A to B. It all helps in one way or another.
Studies have shown that Australian birds are the most aggressive in the world. Just listen to the noise in the flowering eucalyptus gums, which can be heard streets away, as they fight and squabble over the blossoms and they can be seen chasing each other constantly. Bellbirds & Noisy Minors do more harm to native birds and trees (dieback) defending their territory. They stop other bird species from flying through these areas. Then a native tree out of place (weed) that's supports a food source is a saviour for these birds.
We all have an impact on where we live - good and bad. We can't change the past so any help is good. I believe there is no different in watching a bird splashing around in a birdbath or a bird feeding on a brightly coloured flower. It's all for enjoyment and the more people we encourage to enjoy their backyards the better chance wildlife has to survive.
I am different to you - but still fighting for the same cause. I am on the ground watching what the wildlife needs. Some of our best weeds and rubbish have saved a lot of living things.
In some ways we are all loving nature to death.
It’s the feral future.
Nightowl
BTW Dave, I live 4.5 hours north of Sydney and the Little Evodia are growing well. I would recommend planting them and have many years of enjoyment.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Thanks Nightowl. I've recently bought 4 Little Evodia tubestock from Daleys. (for tubestock 4 is the minimum quantity they sell). Hopefully I can get at least one to look good.
My birdbath seems to attract almost no birds; probably due to the nearby creeks, and backyard bird baths, fish ponds, etc. The environment around here may have been drastically altered, but it's one of those few places in Australia where birds can find plenty of water. Actually there's a lot of bird noise here around 5am.
Cheers,
Dave
I think it is a big challenge getting people to be more aware of the natural environment. A lot of people pass through the environment but don't really see what is there. Partly this is a reaction to all the ugliness in urban environments, people learn to just ignore it.
The big buzzword these days is mindfulness. To me this means being aware of what is around you, whether it be wildlife, plants or other people. It's easy to be aware of a bright coloured bird flashing through the trees, but not so easy with a bug in the leaf litter or another green plant. Gardening is a great way to make people interested in the environment, but a proscriptive list of what you can plant will only put people off. It's great when people get off on restoring native bush, but also great when they get excited about the latest rose or lily. We need more people outside getting their hands dirty.
There are heaps of exotic and non-indigenous plants birds will utilise as food and habitat, some too well.
Long-billed Corellas feed on Romulea rosea
The Orange-bellied Parrot feeds on Cakile maritima.
Various parrots feed on Pyracantha, Ligustrum and Cotoneater species.
Red-browed finches utilise an array of exotic grasses.
Common Bronzewings will feed on seeds of Chamaecytisus palmensis.
Eastern Spinebills and other honeyeaters will visit many exotic flowers e.g. Abutilon hybridum cultivars.
I've seen White-plumed honeyeater choose to nest in a Japanese Maple over indigenous trees right next to it.
In New Zealand they have a range of introduced European finches which feed only on exotic seeds.
These are just some of my observations and readings.
One must bear in mind that in some heavily-modified habitats such as urban areas these introduced plants serve as important (or in some cases, -the only- habitat and food source available) and the birds would otherwise be extirpated. I would dare venture that having some native birds around is better than the local avifauna consisting of a handful of introduced birds.
However, there is a catch. In some cases these birds destroy the seeds, others disperse them further.
White-headed Pigeons were inadvertently saved by the introduction of Cinnamomum camphora after native food trees were cleared, however the subsequent dispersal of camphor seeds has resulted in monocultures of trees with toxic leaves devoid of adapted insect predators (and so forests depauperate of insectivorous bird species).
Careless zerotolerance policies for exotic/non-indigenous plant species can have severe ramifications for native bird species. I've seen firsthand Superb Fairy-wren populations wiped out by removal of their habitat (Blackberry and Gorse).
As an aside there is certainly scope for education programmes, I was once informed that Spotted Doves were native... and that Tawny Frogmouths were owls...
There still seems to be an element of opposition to native gardens I've encountered in the burbs from an ornamental horticultural perspective, people still seem prejudiced against them on the grounds that they are untidy and ugly. I think this is a hangover from the 70s when many native plants were introduced to cultivation without much horticultural knowledge pertaining to their requirements, so the plants were left unpruned resulting in straggly Callistemons and Melaleucas etc. Also some Proteaceous plants were planted in exotic gardens and quickly succumbed to phosophorous fertiliser applications. I think times are changing, though.
Evodia most attractive Australian plant? hmm, there are so many candidates... I have a soft spot for Verticordias, Regelia velutina, Leschenaultia... there are some good eremophilas, hakeas, darwinias..
I am planting out our five acres with natives, eventually I would like to remove the imported exotics, however I see no point in removing exotic habitat until new indigenous habitat has grown. I may never get around tor removing the imported exotics, it takes years for habitat to grow, I know I have been working at it for four years and seriously there is not a lot to look at in our yard yet.
Some of the locally indigenous plants are hardy when growing in their natural setting but put them in a yard, that was once a carpark (compacted soil) that had its top soil ripped out and sold for profit, and then eventually sold as residential complete with lawn (thankfully the developers did leave the very old forest red gums in place) it takes a long time and a lot of money to get plants going, it does help if I can grow some natives that are not locally indigenous to help provide protection for the locally indigenous plants, also locally indigenous plants are not always available, acacia parramatensis is one I am still trying to get a hold of, and I am looking to buy a couple of dozens forest red gums and can't find them even in my local provenance nurseries, so I did buy some turpentine and tallowood trees and have got most of them growing at the moment.
Acacia (wattle) trees, harden bergia and Indigofera Australis are legumes and can put nitrogen into the soil so it is good if I can get some growing even if the wattles are not the local. The long roots, the shading of the soil and nitrogen fixing qualities will make it possible for me to grow more indigenous locals.
20 years ago I would not have attemted to plant a native garden because I knew very little about how to make them grow. My interest in native gardens has grown over time and I must say my gardening started out with a vegie patch and some geraniums. So I would have to say that it is better if people start somewhere, anywhere, and go from there as knowledge and experience grows the confidence of the gardener grows and they are more likely to move on to native friendly gardening.
Happy Birding!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138588528@N02/
Many Fabaceae/Mimosaceae legumes are colonising plants and prone to becoming invasive, the seeds remaining dormant in the soil for years.
Some exotic species have actually raised the soil nitrogen percentage so much that it favours the growth of other exotic herbaceous weeds and pasture grasses which hail from more fertile zones.
That said in some extremely poor degraded soils altered by human disturbance soils probably need as much nutrients as they can get, hence the use of legumes in revegetation and land rehabilitation programmes in mine sites etc..
Many make decent bird habitat in lieu of intact native vegetation... Chamaecytisus, Paraserianthes...
For gardeners I'd suggest planting local species or at least non-invasive non indigenous species to try improve habitat, though as discussed above anything is better than nothing and it might come to this.
Oh well, I'm still mostly at the growing veges stage (and a few fruit are getting there). That keeps me out in the garden quite a lot. Appologies if my native plant and bird life knowledge is at the beginners level. I've planted a few fruit in the front yard that are not common in Australia, like wampi and pepino - they're a great talking point amongst passers-by who know these fruit from their home countries. Wouldn't get that with a hedge of murraya.
Cheers
Many are surprised to hear that Murraya paniculata is actually native to Australia.
However, the common garden variety in the burbs which has become a weed up north (incidentally being due to bird dispersal) is native to China, the native form (sometimes regarded as M.ovatifoliolata -now a synonym of M. paniculata-) being rare in cultivation.
I don't think you need to apolgise for anything David. You are out there greening and thats a good thing to me. Wampi and Pepino - sound like two Mexican children. Are you aware of Daleys Fruit Forum? You might get some good information there about those trees.
I'd take a guess he might be
I grow Pepinos,
taste to me like a melon, not quite as sweet
I think they are being produced commercially in NZ...
Yep, Pepino is I believe a native of Peru. And I had a Peruvian passer-by go "wow, haven't seen them in a while". And Wampi is from South China/Vietnam, and we've had a few interesting conversations/taste samplings with passers-by from those countries. One got quite ecstatic about them. And yes the murraya hedges around here also hail from China - but I don't think I'm likely to meet anybody from China that will get ecstatic about those.
A most interesting discussion!
Darinnightowl mentions the importance of water for birds & that a bird bath is a change in the environment. Could I mention (ooops! I think I'm about to!) that in many situations a bird bath is a substitute for the rock pools & water holes which once existed but are now filled with urban encroachment. However, if every backyard had a bird bath would that be over-substitution? And if so, what effect would that have on bird behaviour & ecology?
Corridors along which wildlife can travel to find new resources or disperse to colonise new areas are important & need to be a feature of all housing encroachments. If indigenous plants are available why not plant those & make the corridor more attuned to the birds' needs since the birds evolved with the indigenous vegetation? Often indigenous plants can be encouraged to grow where there are nearby patches of natural bushland. If indigenous plants aren't available then why not plant species which will be attractive to the birds but which won't be invasive of natural bushland. Remember, birds are an important vector of seeds be they indigenous or exotic.
I certainly don't decry all sorts of things that aren't natural but which might provide habitat where habitat is in short supply. Your memory of my photo of a Tawny Dragon among sheets of corrugated iron is excellent, darinnightowl. You'll be interested to know, perhaps, that I removed the sheets a couple of years ago & we now have a pair of Tawny Dragons surviving nicely among & on the rocks in our garden. The sheets may well have been part of the Tawny Dragon corridor to our garden rocks!
This sort of leads into mention of climate change. What do we do about that when so many bird species are threatened by changes in temperatures &, in the longer term, vegetation community types? Do we treat climate change as a natural event, do nothing & accept the changes which are occuring & will occur to bird populations? The likely result is a reduction in bird diversity & extinction of bird species because so many species will fail to adapt to these rapid changes in climate. Or do we see it as caused by human action & therefore warranting a human response in terms of the plant species we plant? Can we be sure that, in the long term, we'll be planting the right species for the birds anyway? Or do we do something helpful to arrest & even reverse climate change so that bird populations might recover?
Although much of Australia has ancient, well-leached soils the country has a far greater diversity of bird life than most, if not all, other places on Earth where soils are younger & richer. Fortunately, through evolution, we're blessed with a wonderful array of native plants - although you'd never know it from looking at most Australian gardens.
I'd be careful about labelling a lot of bird noises as "aggressive". Much of the noise from Australian bird flocks is socialising or parenting or communication of territorial boundaries.
I certainly agree with you, darinnightowl, that there are things humans have introduced (e.g., blackberries, sheets of corrugated iron) that have advantaged our wildlife. And we need to have these things in place at least until natural habitat can be established. To remove a patch of blackberries before establishing an equivalent area of mature natural habitat would be disastrous for the wildlife dependent on the blackberries. Both zosterops & Wollemi have alluded to this.
Perhaps there is a case for prescribing which plants people can grow. Already there is a register of declared plants which we can't grow. And there are certain species we can't import so plant prescription is already a feature of our gardens. That our natural areas are under such threat surely adds weight to the argument for prescribed plants. Yes, by all means encourage people to get their hands dirty in the garden but with this needs to be more education about which species are beneficial for restoring our biodiversity. A start could be made by encouraging TV news broadcasts to show photos of local plants rather than exotic plants before their weather reports.
A feral future? Perhaps, but only if we keep our eyes closed, continue clinging to the mother country & ignore Australia's rich natural environment.
I think encouragement is the way to go. And nothing encourages like good example. A well planned native garden can be spectacular; providing a permanent display for all passers-by and the neighbourhood. And even better if the display is backed by the gardener's helpful advice and offers of free/cheap cuttings/tubestock.
On the subject of TV education, the gardening and home makeover shows are the key. I have yet to see any show do a good step-by-step "before and after" conversion to a native garden, including how to design for best effect, convert lawns to garden space, source plants and prepare and landscape the soil. Such a show should also cover the benefits in terms of native bird habitat, better privacy and shading, added interest, etc. It should also detail the costs involved and the longer term financial benefits eg savings in lawn maintenance costs, higher property values, etc . (I think its not only lack of knowledge and experience that deters potential native gardeners but also the cost element). It can't be that hard to do a show like this. The ABC should take the lead.
Great ideas, Night Parrot. Keep 'em coming.
Having worked in weed control programmes I think that some things we have introduced are beyond effective eradication (lantana, camphor etc. (Pittosporum undulatum is a native plant example outside it natural range though it's great bird habitat)) and will continue to be spread by the forces of what we are trying to protect... native birds, Tim Low's Where Song Began touches on this.. White-headed Pigeons were observed to ignore their original food sources; native fruiting trees, in favour of fruiting camphor.
An interesting twist on this is introduced birds assisting native plant regeneration in some countries:
http://www.comsdev.canterbury.ac.nz/rss/news/?articleId=1276
'we can’t always assume that non-native species are the bad guys in our constantly changing eco-systems," Professor Tylianakis says.'
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17883490
As for weed eradication in Aust., it's a big country and i doubt it would be feasible... control certainly, probably biological could be effective but practical means are a drop in the ocean unless massively upscaled. In fact the increase in biological controls would merely bring the exotics into speed with the locals with effective predators, mixed ecosystems...
There are certainly plant education prospects...I've seen Leucospermums, Proteas and Cordyline australis planted in 'native' gardens...
I see potential in the substitute planting of native ornamentals rather than similar exotics... Archontophoenix rather than Syagrus as an example, i see an initiative has already been initiated
http://www.growmeinstead.com.au/
and in theory everyone could have an indigenous or at least native garden, however i think the transition needs to be gradual lest we face alienation in the mainstream, as said there is still an element of opposition to native gardens i've found and I don't have a problem with known non-invasive species.
If you are restoring riparian habitat you can't do it without weeds in the short term. It just isn't practical to establish enough natives quick enough to stabilise soil before the next flood of water arrives. Sometimes the habitat is just too disturbed to contemplate returning to the original community.
Good, point, Greg.
Wholescale weed removal and zero tolerance policies can be worse than the impacts of the weed species themselves...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-23/damaging-willow-removal/5542502
Australia actually has a relative lack of bird species. Especially compared to the riches of the equatorial tropics, of southeast Asia and South America (Colombia alone has over double the species count ~1850+ species), though ironically many of their bird families evolved in Australia. Granted Australia has high rates of endemism and specialist species due to the varied often harsh conditions.
I am learning so much through this conversation, my brain is absorbing what it can as it can and I have lots of ideas for research and reading. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread as it is making me think more about what and should be done.
Happy Birding!
https://www.flickr.com/photos/138588528@N02/
Considering our latitude and longitude, Australia has quite an abundance of birdlife. Compared to Australia, the flora and flora of Europe is quite homognous.
Plus being large helps...
Edit: Sorry about the thread necromancy.
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