STRIPED HAKEA

(Hakea vittata)

(Photos: E. Cousins; habit; close-up of flowering stem; Cape Jervis)

Another spring flowering shrub, good for sandy or limestone soils. It can look a bit sprawly, but can also grow up to head high. From August to November, spider-like white flowers occur in clusters along the stems, at the base of the leaves. Hakeas can be distinguished from grevilleas, which they are very much like, by their woody seed pods. The seed pods of the striped hakea have two little horns, and lengthwise markings (vittatus means ‘longitudinally striped’ in Latin). Leaves are thin cylinders, no more than 1.5mm wide, and appear alternately on the stems. What look like clusters of tiny leaves on those stems might be ‘witches broom’ galls instead…these are caused when branches are infected by a rust fungus.

KNOBBY CLUB RUSH

(Ficinia nodosa, originally Isolepsis nodosa)

(Photos: E. Cousins; growth habit; knobbly foliage, knobby seed head on leaf)

This is a common sedge around the coastline near Cape Jervis. Look for the gentle weeping habit and the deep green cylindrical foliage. It grows in tufts, or clumps, from stout rhizomes. The clumps can grow to about 1 metre tall, and spread up to about 1 metre at the base. The plant gets its common name from the dense brownish growths on the foliage. These are the plant’s flower- and seed-heads. This plant would look good as a contrast to soft foliage or lighter coloured plants in your garden too. And it is a toughie: it likes sandy soil, and will tolerate full coastal exposure, drought and frost. It might go a little bit yellow in really cold weather… never mind, though, it’ll green up again in spring!

SCALY BUTTONS

(Leptorhynchos squamatus)

(Photos: E. Cousins)

It’s the stalk of this plant that is scaly, not the leaf or flower! The flowers are like little yellow buttons, and are produced on long, thin, brown stalks which have scaly leaflets on them. (‘Squamatus’ means ‘scales’.) Note also the cup-shaped base underneath the flower, and the scales on this as well … a distinguishing feature. The plant is really only shin high, with the flowers sitting above the foliage. Its very green leaves are lance-shaped, and have white hairs on the underside. Clumps of this perennial herb grow to about 40cm across. This is an adaptable and hardy plant, tolerant of frost and drought, useful characteristics for Cape Jervis gardens!

CUSHION BUSH

(Calocephalus brownii)

(Photos: E. Cousins, Cape Jervis)

Low maintenance, wind and salt tolerant, highly dry weather tolerant, copes with sandy, loam or clay soils, loves sunshine, dislikes humidity … sounds like just the thing for a coastal garden at Cape Jervis! Add to these features its interesting textural form, and its silvery colour which reflects light at night. What more could you want, for, say, a border along a path, or a contrast to greener plants in your garden?

It’s a bushy, compact perennial shrub to about 75cm high. The stems are really just branches, since the leaves are pretty much invisible, they are so small. The summer flowers are round, and creamy in colour. The ‘brownii’ in the name is after a British botanist, not the colour of the plant. In fact, until recently, the plant was called Leucophyta brownii, from the Greek ‘leucos’ (white, grey) and ‘phyto’ (plant).

GRASS TREE or YACCA

(Xanthorrhoea semiplana ssp tateana)

   (Photos: old plant, forest of plants; E. Cousins, Cape Jervis)

There are many beautiful yacca specimens on the peninsula… take a walk through Newland Head Conservation Park to see forests of them! Their trunks are made of accumulated leaf bases, not wood, so they are more of a grass than a tree, hence the common name. The yaccas around Cape Jervis have trunks up to 4 metres tall, and flower spikes up to another 2.5 metres on top. Phenomenally slow growth rates mean it takes a long time for a trunk to get to this size though.  Aboriginal peoples used this plant for tools, drinks and navigation: the flowering spike made spears for fishing; the nectar from the flowers for a sweet drink; the side the flowers opened on first to indicate north (sunnier side). The resin was used for glue/adhesives; in fact, the botanical name Xanthorrhoea is from the Greek xanthos, meaning yellow, and rheo, meaning to flow; referring to the resin.

COAST BEARD-HEATH

(Leucopogon parviflorus)

(Photos: E. Cousins, Cape Jervis)

The common name of Coast Beard-heath for this plant comes from the dense hairs (or beard) on the petals of its white flowers. These flowers are produced in dense clusters of 7-13, on spikes about 3cm long. The springtime photos above show the shrubs in full bloom, so be on the lookout for beautiful flower displays like this in a couple of months … and look also for the honeyeaters attracted to them.  Coast Beard-heath is an important food source for a number of native birds over summer, but the birds return the favour, in that its seeds are difficult to germinate unless they have passed through a bird’s stomach! The bushy shrubs grow to about 1.5 metres on the coastal heath around Cape Jervis. Leaves are narrow, with tips that sometimes appear bent backwards (recurved).  The tiny fruits are smooth, white globes, like little pearls. These are edible, and lead to a second common name for the plant, the native currant.

AUSTRALIAN BINDWEED

(Convolvulus angustissimus)

   (Photos: E. Cousins, C. Schultz, Cape Jervis)

This is a low-growing creeper, only about 15cm high, but with a spread up to 1.5 m. Convolvulus is from the Latin for “to twine around”; angust is for “narrow”, and issimus for “greatest degree”, perhaps a reference to the multi-lobed leaf shape on mature plants? The leaf shape actually changes along the stem as plants mature: young leaves are smooth and almost shield-shaped, but after a year leaves are narrow and branched. The trumpet-shaped flowers are pink when open, but last only a day, like many other forms of convolvuli. Luckily, the flowering period can be quite long, from early spring to mid-autumn. The black, hard seed normally matures from October-May, after the papery fruits turn brown and brittle.  Extracts obtained by boiling the whole plant were used by Aboriginals to treat diarrhoea and stomach ache (Greening Australia); as well, taproots were used as a food source when the yam daisy was out of season.

COMMON EUTAXIA

or SMALL-LEAVED BUSH PEA

(Eutaxia microphylla)

(Photos: E. Cousins, Cape Jervis)

Like many plants growing in the windy coastal conditions of Cape Jervis, this is a shortie! It only grows to about 15cm tall, but can spread to about 1.5m, with many branches. So it makes a great groundcover. Add to that its drought tolerance, and its showy display of flowers, and you have a garden winner! The leaves are very small, at most 7mm long, and arranged along the stems in pairs. The ends of the branches are spiky. You might think at first glance this bush is a Pultenaea, because of the pea-flower shape. However, where the leaf stalks join the stems, there are no little papery bracts (stipules), which are common to Pultenaeas. The flowers are a combination of red and yellow-orange; look for them in spring time.

PLANT OF THE MONTH: MARCH

Pussytail

(Ptilotus spathulatus)

(Photos: E. Cousins, Cape Jervis)

Minnie DAISY

 (Minuria leptophylla)

    (Photos: E. Cousins, Trig Point, Cape Jervis)

You could easily think the name of this daisy was the mini, rather than the Minnie, given its size! You can see from the insect on the flower in the second photo that the flowers are only about 1-2 cms across. On the coast around Cape Jervis, the plant itself grows to ankle height only, with narrow, shiny green leaves. Flowers are white, with a bright yellow centre; sometimes the flowers are shades of pink or purple. You won’t find this plant out for much longer this year. It has already produced it seeds … two different kinds in the one flower head! Soon the leaves will die back in the heat and dryness of summer, but watch carefully for it reshooting in autumn.  Yes, this is another one of our summer dormant perennial plants.