A friend in LA, California tells me that the local landscape gardeners are using a lot of Kangaroo Paws in water-wise gardens. Apparently the Hummingbirds love them and they'll find around 10 odd birds to any one plant at a time.
| Term and Conditions | Privacy Statement | Web Support by Gaia Resources Hosted by Serversaurus |  |
That's interesting WendyK. I am always intrigued to know where Australian plants are grown around the world. I often see eucalypts in the background of American movies and I have seen many growing in China and Vietnam. I guess there are thousands of Australian trees and plants in other countries.
And quite inappropriately quite often, Night Parrot.
In Vietnam, after the US devastated the jungle with agent orange, eucalypts were planted in some places as a cash crop. I recall this was supported by the CSIRO. What a shame the Vietnamese didn't try to restore the natural ecology. Still, I suppose it's their country & they can do what they like with it. However, since everything on Earth is linked with everything else, I still think it's a shame.
Then, of course, we have the dreadful invasion of the Florida Everglades by Australia's broad-leaved paperbark Melaleuca quinquinervia.
Surely there are local California plants that save water. I just hope the Californian landscapers know what they're doing by planting kangaroo paws to save water.
There's a large lake in Africa where someone tried to farm yabbies. They escaped and have almost completely ruined the whole ecology of the lake. Eucalypts are basically regarded as weeds wherever they've planted them because of the soil depletion ... the US, Arabic countries ...
Wendy
Mandurah, WA
Peel-Yalgorup System Ramsar Site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girlinoz/
Ms Woko tells me that she's heard a report that Eucalypts in one country (not Australia) have badly affected the water table. Best to stick to the local species I would think.
We on earth are becoming homogenised very quickly I think. Commerce and trade are global, races are mixing, borders are open, everyone is traveling, english is becoming the world language and cuisine is being "fusioned". No reason to think that plants would escape the amalgamation. Nearly all our horticulture/livestock originates from outside Australia. Some might say its only fair to export some of our "treasures" in exchange for the fox, rabbit, cat, cane toad, european carp, lantana, cotoneaster and few hundred others. Not really, but our exports can't all be bad. I think I saw somewhere that our barramundi are being farmed in Vietnam. Successfully or not I don't know. Of course trees should be planted where it is appropriate to plant them. Even our own cootamundra wattle, the national foreign emblem, can become a pest species if planted inappropriately in Australia. And the kookaburra is an undesirable alien in Western Australia, as is the brushtail possum in New Zealand. Horses for courses as they say.
Floral emblem that is!!
Homogenisation of Earth? How boring, Night Parrot. No wonder we're becoming dumbed down! Maybe it's time to fight back.
I certainly agree we are being dumbed down Woko! Soaps and reality/talent shows on the commercial TV channels (and the commercials themselves), commercial radio stations, womens magazines, the crap for sale in shopping centres, computer games, action movies, etc all have that effect on me. Fortunately most of it is avoidable.
This is SPAM
M-L
Spam? How on earth did a thread about people planting kangaroo paws which attract hummingbirds degenerate to spam?
Wendy
Mandurah, WA
Peel-Yalgorup System Ramsar Site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girlinoz/
we are facing one of the most urgent environmental issues of our time. Tim Low, the feral future is here to stay. Any way Wendy any photo's would be great.
See it! Hear it!
Mid-North Coast NSW
Had a quick look and found http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=9422771
The roo paws seem to be shrubby types with multiple flower heads.
Go to www.flickr.com and enter "Kangaroo Paw" hummingbird in the search box and you'll get heaps of pics.
I think I'll get a couple of those and see if the honeyeaters like them.
Nightparrot said ... "And the kookaburra is an undesirable alien in Western Australia"
and yet if you tell that to the average man in the street here he'll firstly be shocked at this revelation and then be totally disappointed that it's not native to WA. We love our kookas.
Wendy
Mandurah, WA
Peel-Yalgorup System Ramsar Site
http://www.flickr.com/photos/girlinoz/