Does anyone know what this berry is? It was growing in the Strzelecki Ranges. I tasted one of the purple berries and it was sort-of sweet but a bit unpleasant.
- soakes
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It's a Turutu (Dianella Nigra or Dianella Intermedia) which is a NZ native plant.
Thanks Amateur!
I've been searching for "purple berry" until I'm blue in the face but couldn't find any information on it.
Now I know it's not a native I won't try and plant it anywhere :-)
- soakes
soakes
Olinda, Victoria, Australia
There are Dianellas which are Australian. E.g., Dianella revoluta. So, Soakes, you might have a Dianella species local to your area which you could plant. On the roadside near our place I once counted about 40 blue-banded bees feeding on the flowers of Dianella revoluta. And I understand that birds eat the berries thereby helping the plant to regenerate.
I second Woko's notion. You can get some beautiful native Dianellas ("flax lillies" I think you can call them), incl some newer improved cultivars if you're into that...
I've seen Silvereyes eating them in my yard.
Cheers,
Scott.
I saw the picture and thought Dianella, but was confused when I read not native - I didn't realise there were non-native varieties.
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Luckily Dianella berries are edible - and vaguely sweet though not pleasant, as you found soakes. The idea of eating something you can't identify worries me a bit though - I'd hate to see someone get sick from tasting the wrong stuff. Be careful buddy :)
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They are a nice easy to grow low grass, I have heaps in my garden including:
Dianella caerulea
Dianella congesta
Dianella longifolia
Dianella tasmanica
and possibly some others.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane
My bad, I was trawling through lots of images before I found one that looked the same and also had the information on what type of plant it was, and the one I was looking at was a NZ native. Didn't think of other native possibilities!
Thanks for that info Amateur.
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In that case, based on the info I can find on the web about Dianellas in that region, I'd suggest it is probably Dianella tasmanica.
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See links:
http://www.dse.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/98912/Strz0018.pdf
http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Dianella~tasmanica
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It's a native - go ahead and plant away!
In fact, for anything in good undisturbed bushland that is not an obviously weedy species, there's usually a fair chance it's native.
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Dianellas usually propagate pretty easily from seed. I've grown plenty at home. Just take the berries and squeeze or rub them between a sheet of paper or 2. There's usually around a dozen small black seeds or so in them, a bit smaller than a peppercorn.
Cheers
Tim
Brisbane