The wildflower season was not as spectacular as expected this year. The early rains we had in January and February were promising, but the subsequent grass growth and returning dry spells meant the herbs and flowers did not do as well as last year. The exceptions seem to have been the bushpeas, and generally all the plants of the Fabaceae family. This family contains a lot of the really palatable species that rabbits, wallabies and hares love to eat and there is speculation that the bushpeas received some welcome respite from browsing because of the oversupply of grass as a foodsource.
Eutaxia microphylla did well along the edges of some of our creeklines and significantly increased its numbers and also flowered profusely. Swainsona behriana flourished in the grasslands to the north east of Wedderburn. Templetonia stenophylla was previously only found at one location in the Nardoo Hills reserve of Bush heritage Australia (BHA) around Mt Kerang, but was seen at 5 different spots throughout those hills this year. Indigofera australis was found near Buckrabunyule road, far north of its normal range that normally doesn’t extend much further than Bendigo. Daviesia ulicifolia was seen in dense flowering stands for the first time in 12 years throughout the forests of the Wychitella NCR.
Many herbivores love eating plants from the Fabaceae family as they generally are more nutricious than other species. They are a legume, which means that many of them use a bacteria to take nitrogen gas (N2) from the air and transform it into a digestible version. This is called nitrogen fixing. They also transfer this food stuff into the soils underneath and thus make this mineral available for other plants as well. They are therefore a very important element in the ecosystem and without them the bush wouldn’t function. So even though the unusual volume of grass growth has stymied the wildflowers in general, it has taken the pressure off the peas which in turn is benefitting the health of the bush overall.
Article and photograph - Indigofera australis - Jeroen van Veen
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