Wattle Gum Forest Farm

11/08/2026

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-08-05/science-week-amazing-wildflowers-poll/106612968?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_web

Move over waratahs and banksias! These 10 flowers from the unsung understorey are not just pretty faces, they have surprising tricks up their sleeves.

09/08/2026

Excellent assessment & advice...

20/04/2026

Banksia marginata Silver Banksia is also a Victorian species...

𝑺𝙞𝒔𝙩𝒆𝙧𝒔 𝑭𝙧𝒐𝙢 𝘼𝒏𝙤𝒕𝙝𝒆𝙧 𝙈𝒐𝙩𝒉𝙚𝒓 # 19

𝐖𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐛𝐞𝐝!

There are only 2 native Banksia species in SA. There are about 170 native species in Australia. So, no excuse for not being able to recognise 𝘼𝙇𝙇 of our SA species….

Our two species of Banksia have to do a awful lot of heavy lifting. Their importance to wildlife is greater in SA than this number would suggest. Banksias provide copious essential nectar to honeyeaters, ants, many other insects, and numerous other birds for months each year, as the flowers open up sequentially.

In our higher rainfall areas Silver Banksias provide an important food resource for wildlife, particularly woodland birds! But Silver Banksias are now rare. Fewer Silver Banksias = fewer birds. Banksia numbers are declining as they grow on better soil which has been cleared.

And seedlings (which must taste like the wildlife equivalent of chocolate pudding) are eaten off by kangaroos, goats, and deer year after year.

𝗦𝗶𝗹𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀𝗶𝗮
Tallish shrubs to small trees, mostly smooth edged dark green leaves on top and narrow flower heads and cones, on good soils.

𝗗𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘁 𝗕𝗮𝗻𝗸𝘀𝗶𝗮
Squat shrubs, saw-tooth edged light green leaves, broad stumpy flower heads and cones. Found overwhelmingly on sand (nutrient deserts). Desert Banksia is almost all our own, with a leakage over the border into western Victoria.

𝗣𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗢
A. Desert Banksia 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑠𝑖𝑎 𝑜𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑎 IBW5P 2nd Ed. p98-9
B. Silver Banksia 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑠𝑖𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑟𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑡𝑎 IBW5P 2nd Ed. p98-9

𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘
IBW5P thought there were about 70 Banksia spp. in Australia, but AVH lists 173 species! WA has gone from 60 to 150 Banksia spp as about 90 Dryandra spp have been placed in the Banksia genus. NSW has 17, Victoria 9, but still only 2 in SA.

𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡 𝗠𝗢𝗥𝗘

𝐺𝑟𝑜𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑆𝑖𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐵𝑎𝑛𝑘𝑠𝑖𝑎
Is Silver Banksia in your revegetation mix? Other species, such as Acacia pycnantha, Olearia ramulosa, and Dodonaea viscosa, get way more action that they deserve in planting projects....
Banksia marginata can be grown from viable seed (up to 80% germination with good seed). Trade Secrets: MUST be planted in cold weather late July to early August and MUST only use a low phosphorus fertiliser, if any, or they will be cactus. And who wants cactus. Thanks to Yvonne Gravier, Manager of the Kersbrook Landcare Group Nursery

𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐍𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐁𝐋𝐄 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐃
'Interrelationships'
Plants and animals work together to meet their needs” - in this case, flower fertilisation in return for nectar.

“𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩” 𝐢𝐬 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐩𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝.

Based on Steve Van Matre (1979) Sunship Earth: An Earth Education program for getting to know your place in space, American Camping Association.

𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥: Posts are made on Sunday evenings. I run no ads and do not pay Facebook to send the blog to more (random) people. The Facebook ‘algal rhythms’ are set up to keep me small. Come looking on Sunday evenings, share, or even (shock, horror) push the Follow button to keep Its Blue online.

12/04/2026

𝑩𝒊𝒐𝒅𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒊𝒕𝒚: 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒙𝒚𝒈𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒌𝒔, 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒅𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒚 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒑.

𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐫𝐭
𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐥
𝐎𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐥𝐞

Biodiversity is the sum total of all living species and all their variations and all their interactions. This complex of dynamic living things created the thin thin film of life —the biosphere — clinging to the surface of the earth and the oceans. Their interactions unite the world. The ‘machinery’ of their living creates the air we breathe, the fertile soil in which we grow things, the oceans from which we feed, the fresh water we drink.

Tiny decorations on the eggs of a butterfly, the fine threads of fungi that wind through the soil for many meters, the petite leaves of mosses that swell and turn green with the first winter rains, the bulbs that push up from underground in autumn after conserving energy all summer long to allow this to happen, millions of microscopic bacteria breaking down the fallen leaves, the ants that are security guards for tiny caterpillars while they feed on native sorrel, the call of a blue wren or a magpie, the bandicoot turning over the soil, eagle that soars over 1000s of hectares daily.

Think of the most complex delicate machine you can imagine and multiply that complexity by many billions. That is biodiversity.

Now imagine starting to pull this machine apart one bit at a time; an aluminum cover plate, a bolt, a nut, a few more bolts, a coil, a small circuit board, a tiny weld, hair-thin copper wire, a tension spring, a tiny dial. At which point would you accidentally pull out an important part that fuses the whole machine or causes its disintegration?

That is the point at which we, the people, now find ourselves – destroying a complex universe bit by bit and we are close to the collapse of the system.

Biodiversity; the diversity of all living things.

𝑻𝙝𝒆 𝒎𝙖𝒄𝙝𝒊𝙣𝒆𝙧𝒚 𝒐𝙛 𝙤𝒖𝙧 𝙎𝒖𝙣𝒔𝙝𝒊𝙥 𝙀𝒂𝙧𝒕𝙝.

𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥: Posts are made on Sunday evenings. I run no ads and do not pay Facebook to send the blog to more (random) people. The Facebook ‘algal rhythms’ are set up to keep me small. Come looking on Sunday evenings, share, or even (shock, horror) push the Follow button to keep Its Blue online.