A Plethora of Peas, Nature’s Calendars and Bacon and Eggs

Day 38, Jacksonia horrida, a plant a day , Lowlands Reserve, 1 December 2020

Jacksonia horrida, Lowlands Reserve, 1 December 2020, prickly, flowers sporadically throughoout the year Lowlands Reserve 1 December 2020

Another of my long time favourites, the bacon and egg pea flowers of the Mirbeloid clade. “Bacon and egg pea” is one of the common names I learned over 30 years ago when I arrived here. It was a long time before I learned to match of the bacon and egg pea flower scientific names to the plants. There are so many , not only Jacksonia and Bossiae, but also Eutaxia, Daviesia, Gastrolobium, Pultenae all come in shades of yellow-orange, not forgetting Dilwinya, Chorizema….

Bossiae linophylla, all but finished flowering , in seed at the moment, not prickly, and more predictable flowering season, Lowlands Reserve 1 December 2020. Seeking high and low, I found only one lonely Bossiae flower on one of the hundreds of Bossiae shrubs around Lowlands

In Lowlands, our bacon and egg pea plants include Bossiae linophylla, which is not prickly, and regularly flowers early in the season for about 3 months until about November. It is mainly in seed at the moment

We also have today’s featured plant the Jacksonia horrida, which is prickly, and flowers sporadically at any time of year. Florabase says it Flowers in January, February, March, June, August, October, November and December!

Jacksonia horrida , does not deter the rather fearsome looking ant — how big are those ant’s feelers? Lowlands Reserve 1 December 2020

I give no guarantees that the scientific names in these stories are correct! One of the distinguishing features of Jacksonia is that its stamens are free, not united like in Bossiae species. To find out how the stamens appear, involves poking around in the plants reproductive parts, which does seem a bit uncouth.

Jacksonia horrida with free stamens, Lowlands Reserve 1 December 2020

I do like pea flowers, I have already featured several fab members of the Fabaceae family, Kennedia (Day 4 ), Gompholobium (Day 12), Gastrolobium (Day 21), Wonnich (Day 22), and look forward to featuring many more. We have so many pea plant species in Lowlands Reserve. Being able to fix Nitrogen is one of their amazing super powers in our nutrient poor soils.

To me, Bossiae and Jacksonia have parallels in the Scottish pea plants, Broom and Gorse. Broom, like Bossiae, flowers regularly in the Spring and has no prickles, whereas Gorse, like Jacksonia, flowers sporadically from January onwards and is very prickly! Bossiae and Broom flowerings are regular enough to set your calendar by.

I learned when walking to school in Perth, Scotland as a small child how to tell Broom from Gorse. I still have vivid memories of the places, songs, stories and names of the daily walk of us 3 kids (with my brother and Hilary from across the road) to school — the Nettley Way was a shortcut but watch out for stinging nettles! We occasionally had travellers’ children at our primary school in winter (McPhee surname was a giveaway) and they were the ones who were the best berry and potato pickers when all us kids went raspberry picking and potato picking on local farms.

First photo Scottish broom with round leaves, 2nd photo Scottish gorse with prickles , photos from Wikipedia

Most traditional societies used Nature’s calendars to remind people of activities to be undertaken. Scotland’s travelling folk knew that when the “yellow’s on the broom”, it’s time to leave winter housing and take to the road again. Check out this youtube song “Yellow on the broom” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfFb2hXEpN8&list=RDKfFb2hXEpN8&start_radio=1&t=62&t=64

So I sang “Yellow on the Bossiae” while walking in Lowlands Reserve when the Bossiae was fully in flower some weeks back. Singing our songlines.

Noongar people used the flowering of the pea plant, Templetonia retusa (cockies tongues, the skippy flower, grows near the fishing spot The Deep in Lowlands Reserve) to know when to start fishing for skippy. Also a little blue flower would remind Menang Noongars of the time to fish for black bream, and Marri flowering is also a fishing reminder

Jacksonia in the foreground, with a very Scottish looking sky in the background. Lowlands Reserve 30 November 2020. Prickles showing on the Jacksonia, must be why someone named it horrida, I dont think its horrid at all!

Writing this daily blog featuring a plant a day and walking daily is my fundraising effort for Bush Heritage #groundworkchallenge . To join my team or donate go to https://www.groundworkchallenge.org.au/fundraisers/sheilamurray/2020?fbclid=IwAR2HbNn0YsCCc3tiSK-_lbF5xLsssaD8wjGHaUwVYrRqYxM-kdJkijoj2N0

Lowlands Coastal Reserve is on Menang Boodja — country. I celebrate the strength, resilience and capacity of the Menang Noongar people who are the traditional owners of the land.

Lowlands Coastal Reserve is managed by the local community and the City of Albany. Bush Heritage Australia manage many other wonderful reserves.

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