Treasures and Conostylis in Lowlands Coastal Reserve
Day 23 Conostylis serrulata, a plant a day, 16 November 2020
I pick up plastics and litter when I notice it on my daily walks, but there’s not too much, as all our community members do the same. Today I scored a hair tie and an orange plastic turtle and only one beer bottle and one plastic bottle. You can go to our neighbour’s garage sale for #garagesaletrail this coming weekend. Lovely community here, see sign on Lower Denmark Road.
Conostylis in the reserve is one of my favourites, it is in the Haemodoraceae family(like the Kangaroo Paws I featured on Day 20) and so it has that fuzzy felt texture I love. It is another genus which is endemic to SW of WA.
It starts flowering early August, and fills me with anticipation of warmer weather to come, Conostylis was one of the first scientific binomial names I memorised early on, by singing when I saw it flowering. I learned from Pauly the joy of singing little made up ditties, and of course our First Nations people have demonstrated the power of recalling knowledge by singing your songlines. My little ditty goes: Conostyl, bloom she will, join the spring club dance, ha ha. When I arrived 32 years ago, locals told me common names like “foxtails”, “curry and rice” “bacon and egg”, and I also made up my own names too.
Unless you look really closely, or run your fingers up the leaves, you might miss the prickles on the Conostylis serrulata leaves. Other conostylis species, the candicans, for example, planted by City of Albany in North Road and Lockyer Ave, has grey coloured foliage and no prickles! All conostylis species are perennial, making the prickle free conostylis candicans a popular garden species. But I do like a bit of attitude in our Lowlands Coastal Reserve plants though, where prickles rule! Deters the herbivores a bit too.
In Lowlands Coastal Reserve, Conostylis serrulata has a very long flowering period (winter to summer), and it has been in flower continuously for about 4 months now.
Today is the official start date for the Bush Heritage Australia #groundworkchallenge. You can donate at https://www.groundworkchallenge.org.au/fundraisers/sheilamurray/2020
Lowlands Coastal Reserve is managed by the community and the City of Albany, but Bush Heritage Australia manage lots of other wonderful reserve.
Lowlands Coastal Reserve is on Menang Boodja- country. I acknowledge the Aboriginal People as the First People, whose lands, winds and waters we now share. I pay tribute to their ancient and enduring wisdom and culture, and their contemporary journey that deepens and enriches us as individuals and as a community. I recognise that Aboriginal people, as the traditional custodians of the lands in Western Australia, have a spiritual, social, cultural and economic relationship to nature and life.
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