RED OR ORANGE BERRIES

Cotoneasters (pronounced co-tony-asters) or Firethorn. These two shrubs are spectacular in cooler climates during the winter months when their bright bunches of red and orange berries catch the eye. These bushes are unnoticed other than as green hedges until the cooler months arrive. Suddenly their berries ripen and bring colour to our winter views here in the cool mountain highlands of the Granite Belt of southern Queensland.

I was unfamiliar with these plants until November 1979 when I visited friends on the east coast of the USA. Al and Martha Lager owned a home at Saratoga in the hills overlooking Silicon Valley south of San Francisco. What an eye-opener that visit was for me as their region was in full flush with deciduous trees showing the glory of autumn colour. Their home was set into a hillside and the whole steep slope at the rear of their home was covered by Pyracantha – the Firethorn plant.

Californian firethorn

I was so impressed by the sight of this colourful, sprawling plant totally covering the hillside that I decided to grow two plants in my then garden at Dalby. The shrubs thrived, but I quickly realized they were thorny monsters unsuitable for a home where children might hit a cricket ball under their foliage. I dug them out!

In 1987 when Eberhard and I were living in Toowoomba and he was manager of the Club Restaurant at the University of Southern Queensland, we often went walking on the outskirts of the city and again I discovered some beautiful specimens of Pyracantha. Read the rest of this entry »

INTRODUCED GRASSES

These grasses are hardly wildflowers but I found them in the booklet Wildflowers of the Granite Belt under the section of introduced weeds.

Wildflowers of the Granite Belt

When you look at a photograph like this, what do you see?

Storm brewing on the Granite Belt

Do you see a storm brewing?

Do you see a restless horse pacing the fence?

Do you see the thick blanket of eucalyptus trees on the hills.

Do you see the grass and recognise the variety?

Or do you just see a tranquil country view?

I can look at a view like this and see many things. In particular I see that there are no cattle grazing on this green grass and I ask myself the question, “Why?Why do people grow grass if not to feed it to grazing animals. Is it possible that this particular grass is a variety that animals will not eat?”

Did you ever think that grazing animals my be choosy about what grasses they are willing to eat? Read the rest of this entry »

WEED SHRUBS WITH BERRY SEEDS

During these autumn and winter months many of the introduced shrubs growing wild along the banks of the Severn River provide berries now for Australian birds who have multiplied largely due to the weedy nature of these shrubs. Birds like the Satin Bower birds now have a winter source of food.

May view of the Severn River

It is only possible for me to access the river bank at this one place where we cleared the rubbish many years ago to allow family, guests and friends to go fishing. Now farmers are prevented from clearing trees on their river frontages by the Queensland Native Vegetation Act. What this means is that plants like blackberries, Willow trees, honeysuckle, brier roses and and Privets now flourish in these regions providing cover for wild pigs, foxes and rabbits. No one manages these areas to prevent their degradation. Read the rest of this entry »

COREOPSIS – WEED OR WILDFLOWER?

Golden Coreopsis

It was largely due to the spread of this perennial plant, a native of the prairie grasslands of the USA, that farmers feared the introduction of the Flanders poppy into the Granite Belt district and opposed my proposal for a Memorial Drive linking Amiens, Messines, Bapaume, Passchendaele, Bullecourt, Pozieres and Fleurbaix where people along this route could grow the poppies to bloom for 11th November.

The farmers said, “We have enough flowering weeds in this district!” They pressured the Stanthorpe Shire Council  to veto my proposal. I took the heat out of the issue by establishing a field of Flanders poppies on our land as a Remembrance Field to prove that the poppies were unlikely to spread in the same manner as the Coreopsis.

I knew that the Eastern Rosella parrots ate the seed of these flowers and then via their droppings, spread that seed across the district. I knew that the Coreopsis was a perennial plant of the prairie grasslands of the USA and was therefore adapted to grow in grass country.

Farmers can easily cultivate out Coreopsis seedlings from any agricultural field, but the Coreopsis is a perennial plant that has adapted to grassland. Therefore the roots will remain alive after the leaves have been eaten by livestock or burned during annual burning of grassland. Read the rest of this entry »