Capeweed
As Floriade drew thousands
towards swathes of organised colour from overseas plant species, a pale yellow
invasion covered open grassed areas. After two modest springs, Capeweed* seeds
responded to the winters’ dampness by germinating in their millions. Even
though they’re annuals they grow rapidly, taking space from grasses. Having
stout stems Capeweed is useful for learning daisy-chain-making. The plants can
be levered out of damp soil when young.
Capeweed’s pale-lemon flowers show the flower structure
typical of blooms in the huge worldwide daisy family. A circle of colourful
‘petals’ attracts potential pollinators towards the flower’s centre and a
reward for carrying and dispersing pollen. Capeweed flower-heads are composites
of scores of tiny flowers each with the potential to produce seeds. The
Capeweed plant’s fruit is covered with purplish rusty-brown ‘wool’ and it’s
possible that several bird species are eating them now as they forage on nature
strips.
‘Dandelions’
Dandelions* have many more individual flowers than Capeweed
but are also circled by ray florets advertising to invertebrate pollinators.
Their yellow flower-heads turn towards the sun. The ray florets and sepals
close over the flowers by nightfall. On wet or less sunny days the pollen is
protected by the flowers remaining closed.
Six weeks after Floriade closed, unmown nature strips and
open spaces show swathes of dandelion-yellow from two similar species. Flatweed
and Cat’s ears are far more common than Dandelions, raising their flower-heads
above rosettes of leaves which take space from grasses and clovers. Cat’s ears
are annual and may be easier to pull out of damp soil than Dandelions or
Flatweed with their perennial deeper root systems.
All three have parachute-like seeds once the flowers are
fertilised. They efficiently use breezes, wind and slipstreams to aid dispersal.
I once counted 120–150 flowers on Flatweed flower-heads, which explains their
successful invasions. Dandelion flowers are edible, which is one way of
preventing them from seeding. Murnong or Yam Daisies provided Indigenous people
with a staple starchy food and have flowers similar to Dandelions.
St John’s Wort
With stamens surrounded by five
deep-yellow petals St John’s Wort (SJW) might initially resemble yellow daisies
but their invasiveness is much more obvious. Paddocks and hillsides are covered
in SJW-yellow now that the 2013 stems have grown up and through the rusty-brown
stalks from last year’s massive flowering.
Some areas of Mt Rogers were sprayed for SJW. Now there is a
need to tackle what has emerged from the soil or germinated since. Steve D has
made a start on this using a less laborious back-pack-spray unit borrowed from
Ginninderra Catchment Group and supplied chemical.
Mustard
Another pale yellow weed that is
tough and quick growing is one of the Turnip Weeds, and their look-alike Hairy
Mustard. They belong to another huge family, the Brassicaceae. If you’ve seen
white butterflies visiting them you won’t be surprised to know they’re related
to cabbages, cress, rocket and canola. They don’t form swathes but they
certainly show their presence by growing above grasses to also announce their
values to bees and other pollinating insects. The exception is Canola which is
cultivated in massive paddocks beyond the ACT’s borders.
Paterson’s Curse
Not
cultivated but also capable of producing swathes of colour, Paterson’s Curse (PC)
can be photogenic for calendar scenes and useful to apiarists because bees seek
out the flowers’ nectar. To others it is an extremely invasive weed and can be
poisonous to livestock.
Mt
Rogers has relatively few populations of PC. Our walkers have made a point of
carrying gloves and pulling up young plants. We are now in a more structured
phase where the plants are pulled up and bagged so the flowers can’t continue
to set seed on the ‘hill’. For today’s working bee Angharad, Flemming, John and
I concentrated on PC to the north of the Wickens Place car-park. Richard and
Kirsty worked solo, pulling and bagging the plants they found elsewhere. We all
found several Vipers Bugloss plants (like PC, originally from Europe) where we
worked. Until now the Bugloss has tended to be a weed of higher country than Mt
Rogers 704 m.
Both
PC and SJW were the subject of much research to find biological control
invertebrates. Sometimes evidence of the weevils and beetles can be seen on
plants but the success of these introduced and much-tested controls has been
patchy.
Rabbits & foxes
Reports
of rabbit and fox sightings are continuing. In some cases there’s evidence of
possible dens and definite rabbit scrapings. The foxes’ presence is
particularly worrying because we have several ground-living and ground-nesting
birds, but we have sighted Quail and Speckled Warblers this spring which is
encouraging.
Working-bees
The
hard-work highlight of 24th November was cutting and daubing two
large Pyracantha west of and down from the summit. They had thousands of young
berries which we hope will cook to inedibility over the next few weeks. Ann,
Flemming, Ivan and John and Rosemary showed persistence and tenacity; earlier Kathy
worked with the team on other woody weeds. Anne intends to contribute through
seek and destroy sorties for woody weeds when she can. Angharad also does
volunteer landcaring at Mulligans Flat.
Living next to nature
This
is the title of a new booklet from the Conservation Council. Its focus is on
“being a good neighbour to the bush next door”. It complements the series of
brochures for which Belconnen’s Treasures
was the first title. Majura’s
Treasures is the latest in the series with Molonglo’s Treasures to
join those of Gungahlin and Tuggeranong as a way of finding out about natural
and cultural heritage for each area.
Living Next to Nature is a good introduction to the knowledge and
appreciation the Mt Rogers community already has and it’s an attractive way to
pass on our feelings.
The season changes…
We
are going through phases of different seasons each week if not each day.
Unusual bird species are still turning up: Black Honeyeaters near Dunlop’s
Jaramlee Ponds, and Painted Honeyeaters near Urambi. With many eucalypts in
flower there may be “unusuals” on Mt Rogers even now. If you have the chance,
mention the likelihood of snakes to newcomers with dogs. Enjoy the holiday
period and a break from official landcaring!
Rosemary Mt Rogers Landcare Group
6258 4724
02.12.13.
* Capeweed Arctotheca calendula, a native of South Africa. Asteraceae
family.
* Taraxacum species cover several dandelion types.
* Cat’s ear Hypochaeris glabra and Flatweed H. radicata are European, of Mediterranean
origin.
* St John’s Wort Hypericum perforatum. Native SJW is Hypericum gramineum.
* Turnip Weed Rapistrum rugosum and Hirschfeldia incana, from the
Mediterranean region.
* Paterson’s Curse and
Viper’s Bugloss. Echium plantagineum
& E. vulgare. Native to Europe.
