Lowlands Reserve , a plant a day and Count von Count
Day 1: Comesperma virgatum 25 October 2020
I wonder how many different species there are in Lowlands Reserve?
I’m hoping to post a story about a plant a day, to start a count of species. I like counting. My favourite Sesame Street character is The Count von Count, especially today, since his skin tone is the same shade as Comesperma
Comesperma virgatum is not one of the most commonly occurring herbs in Lowlands reserve, though it is often seen in nearby roadside verges and happily grows beside our letterboxes! I like its graceful form and softness.
In Noongar lore, this is a medicinal plant, its aromatic roots smell like Dencorub.
This one is endemic to Western Australia, although other Comesperma species occur in other Australian states and in Papua. Another species, the blue Comesperma ciliatum, also occurs in Lowlands Reserve, but I’ll save that story for another day.
Comesperma are in the order Fabales, like the the pea family. However, Comesperma are not in the Fabacaea family which comprise 95% of the species in the Fabales order. Rather Comesperma , and other milkworts, are in the cosmopolitan Polygalaceae family.
Comesperma virgatum were one of the species studied in fire ecology research in the jarrah forest. Unsurprisingly, the percentage cover of this species did not return to pre-burn percentage cover rates, when studied 2 years later in rehabilitated areas. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0378112700004412
I’m fundraising 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 Reserve is managed by the local community and City of Albany.
Lowlands Reserve is on Minang Boodja — country. I celebrate the resilience, culture and capacity of the traditional owners, the Minang Noongar people of the Wagyl Kaip region.
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PS — Graveyard of Lost Words — some of the text I edited out of this post below!
For classical scholar purists, the name “comesperma virgatum” mixes Greek etymology “Comesperma” and Latin etymology “virgatum”. “Come” is presumably an anglicisation of “Kome” meaning hair in ancient Greek, “K” for the Greek letter Kappa. Sperma for seed in both Greek and Latin. I’ll have to look out to see if any hairy seeds develop! Virgatus means striped in Latin, and because the noun sperma is neuter from the 3rd declension, the suffix of virgatus is changed to -um (virgatum). Channelling from my Scottish education over 50 years ago “The genders of declension three, from each words ending you may see , …. er, r, or, us are masculine , as , os, is, x are feminine, of neuter endings there are nine, ….the rest by LANCET are remembered best” Not sure why Milkwort is described as stripey though.
