Australian Native Plants at the ANBG Canberra

[Paul T]

Luit,

But I swear that some of the weeds hide while you're there, only to come out after you've gone.  Every time I walk through the area I see some I've missed. 

I'm not paranoid... the weeds ARE out to get me. 

[Lesley Cox]

David,

Swainsonia formosa used to be Clianthus formosa,

Or even Clianthus formosus  . I had seed of it at one time maybe 40 years ago, twice in fact but never got any to live longer than the first true leaf stage. Love to try it again. And it IS on our Bio Index, as Swainsona formosa (not Swainsonia)

[Lesley Cox]

I also grew a Doryanthes for about 5 years in my tunnel house. I think it was D. palmeri though. Needless to say as soon as it went outside and a frost hit it, it died.

Luit, the way Paul has posted his pics is very easy and I like it better because one can write between the pics, knowing exactly where the pics will be in the text. There's no problem so long as the name of the plant is typed in with the attachment, as Paul has done. I think I've always used this way to post pictures.

[Lvandelft]

Thank you Lesley for the tip.
It might sometimes be useful. But a picture with a name seems to me very essential.

[Lesley Cox]

Well of course I agree that a named pic is essential and if the file name is the plant name, no problem but many posters have numbers or codes as the file name and so there's no hint in the file under the pic, what the pic actually is. They have to do a list of the plant names above the pics and not everyone does that, or if they do, one has to scroll up and down to match the plant name to the pic, if you see what I mean. As an example, go to "Flowers and Foliage October 2008. John W has posted two great pics of Bessera which we know is Bessera because he says so, but the file name doesn't say so. Not an issue there but if 8 or 10 pics of different plants are posted, it's a pain having to scroll up and down to see what they all are.

I think I should be putting this in the "Moan, Moan, Moan... " thread

[Paul T]

Luit,

I also always tried to associate each description with a picture, so that you have the associated name there with it.  At one point I was trying that with the description above the pictures, then the name below them again, just to make sure it was clear, then I changed to pictures with the description and name below.  Do they not come out that way for you?

Lesley,

The best way to grow the Sturt Peas is to have them grafted, in the case of ours they were cotyledon grafted onto the Clianthus.  No way the rootstock can grow itself, and the benefits of a much better rootsystem that is not so touchy to fungus, moisture, temperatures, days ending in a "y" etc. 

[Paul T]

As I've mentioned before, lots of pea flowers (Fabaceae) out at the moment, so I'll start with three of them....
click the pix to enlarge....



This is Bossiaea scolopendria with it's leafless stems and flowers sprouting right out of them.  I've posted one of this genus before, with the same characteristics (but much larger and with bright red flowers from memory).  This one is only about 20 inches tall, with flowers about 1cm wide.


Pultenaea flexilis as you can see is quite tall, this one being cut so that people can walk under it.  Flowers are only about a cm or so wide.




Pultenaea stipularis is quite similar, only slightly different in flowers and foliage.  This has also been cut to walk under it, plus a closeup of the flowers to who what they look like.

And on to other things.....


I've shown a small plant of Hibbertia empetrifolia before, but this shows it when fully established.  It is a ground cover type of plant, rooting down in places.  I think it would mound up over time, but spreads out beautifully over rocks etc and trails down.  Very desirable to me, and I shall have to find find a source.   


Hibbertia dentata is a twining ground cover (i.e it will cover the ground or twine up things).  Flowers are about 2 inches wide.  Very attractive.

[Lesley Cox]

The last Hibbertia looks very like my H. scandens. Are they synonyms?

[Paul T]

Lesley,

I'd wondered the same thing to be honest.  Is H. scandens really flat if a groundcover, but twines up and through anything it encounters?

[Paul T]

Lesley,

A quick search revealed that H. dentata has dentate leaves (i.e an at least partially toothed margin in this case), whereas the H. scandens doesn't.  H. dentata is also more shade tolerant that H. scandens apparently.  It also doesn't smother plants like H. scandens is want to do.

[Lesley Cox]

Fair enough. I can't say that my scandens is so vigorous that it's likely to smother anything. I have it on a brick house wall to get whatever heat is going. It would probably be frosted if allowed to wander away from the wall.

[Paul T]

Lesley,

Do you want me to get you a packet of Swainsonia formosa seed?  They sell it here at the ANBG, and got fresh stock in yesterday.  I found out today when I went to check for someone else.  I'm happy to get you a packet if you want me to?

[Paul T]

The last few pics that I had prepared the other day but still haven't uploaded.....

The first couple are from the display glasshouse at the ANBG....




This is an Australian bulb called Proiphys cunninghamii (at least I think ti is that species anyway).  Flowers are about 4cm across and grows to about 18 inches to 2 feet tall.  Leaves are a bit similar to a Eucharis






This is Syzigium wilsonii ssp wilsonii, one of the native lillipillis.  Weeping shrub, at least in our glasshouse conditions anyway.  Gloriously flowers, the flowerhead in the photo is about 6 inches across all up.




And lastly a couple of quintessential Aussies..... the Waratahs (Telopea sp).  A red and a white to show you the differences.  A few different varieties are currently in flower in teh gardens, so if you're interested let me know and I can take and post some more pics of other species and varieties.

That's all I have prepared for now, but I took a few more pics today so I might have more to post soon.  I hope you all are enjoying them. 

[Joakim B]

Paul I (we?) are enjoying it
The Hibberta scandens I saw in the botanical garden of Ajuda here in Portugal was more of a bush but it might have had support.
Yesa I liked the last flowers so if You can mire please Are they as big as they look (10-15cm in diameter)?
BTW it took me a while to realize that something was different but I could not figure out what untill I realized now that You are Paul T and not the old signature.

Kind regards
Joakim

[Paul T]

Joakim,

The signature is the same as I've always had it, but I've shifted my ID now to Paul T (Thanks again Maggi) as I think it made it a bit more consistent.    I don't know whether anyone else has noticed it, at least you're the first person to comment on it.

I'll photograph some more of the Telopea for you.  The whole flowerhead (the middle bit are the actual flowers) is around the 15cm size, perhaps a bit larger.  I have been meaning to try to find a small tape measure that I can keep on my keyring so that I can accurately measure flowers when I photograph them.  I haven't had time to shop around and find one.  For larger flowers I tend to use my handspan as an easy guide.  With my hand spread it is almost exactly 9 inches from the tip of my thumb to the tip of my little finger, which is very handy to know when you're trying to measure things.  Two handspans is a neat 18 inches, four is 3 feet etc.  Great for larger things, but doesn't work quite so well for small flowers.  That's what I need the tape measure for.