We have to admit that the language, in vegetation, of the land has been altered in many waves of plant arrivals, each changing the character of what grows in a certain place. Some species have adapted so well as to overtake and force out others. How do you choose what to keep or pull out in your garden, or on your land? Its a matter of perspective, and i would suggest a process in action that contains its own paradoxes. Lantana for example, recognised as a hideous invasive force in bushland, was originally brought into the country because it formed hedges with clusters of pretty flowers. Forms hedges alright, sometimes metres high along creeklines. In one context, gardens, it worked for a while, but when it busted out of context, it dominated. Yet even while doing so, provided its delectible berries to native birds. Its thicket like form created nesting sites in situations where other habitat may have been destroyed. Vegetation is often an evolving, rather than a static thing, and may well depend on who is caretaking a site, or not, as to how it develops and changes.
Certainly since the coming of white boatpeople to Australias shores plants travelled with them, have taken root and flourished. With furthur layers of folks coming from all over the world (some of who would have been happy to find plants like dandelion growing in their new home) came different plants, some of which naturalised.
"these weeds are now part of a 'new' Australian ecology."
Greg Czechura, Queensland Museum
As someone looking for medicines and food to harvest, also just blown away by natures diversity, I hope my senses are open to all kinds of plants. The pictures above of red clover and a waratah each hold beauty for me, amazingly similar in their form though originating on oppposite sides of the globe...
Resources:
Robin Buchanon. 'Bush Regeneration'.
Tim Low. ' The New Nature: Winners and Losers in Wild Australia'.
Suzanne Ermert. ' Gardener's Companion to Weeds'.
No comments:
Post a Comment