Cottesloe Primary School - April 2007
Year 4 students from Cottesloe Primary with their teachers, Mrs Marion Ewing and Mr Lawrie Prestage, walked to Cottesloe beach to meet Kate Sputore, the North Metro Coastcare Officer and Robyn Benken from CCA. The Norfolk Island pines above Cottesloe's main beach provided the shady classroom. We learnt about local native plants and how they have adapted for survival on sand dunes, in harsh salt-laden winds. You can see more on the blog.
These are the four plants we studied. ( You can click on the images to see a bigger picture.)
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Acacia cyclops or red-eyed wattle Yoshi, Ben, Mikayla, Euan, Elsa, Tom, Brittany and Vaneezeh studied this plant and you can see our worksheet here.
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Acacia cyclops is a large shrub or small tree, recognised by its conspicuous seed-pods, which contain dark seeds surrounded by their red stalks. Birds feast on these seed-stalks and insects and lizards shelter in the dense foliage. The larvae of a butterfly, the two-spotted line blue, eats the buds and flowers, which appear throughout the year. The Nyoongar name is galyang.
Flowers: yellow – Sept to May. See more on Florabase and Coastcare's Fact sheet.
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Spinifex longifolius or long-leaved spinifex Angus, Michael, Charlie, Daisy, Ursula, Robbie and Troy studied this plant and you can see our worksheet here.
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| Spinifex longifolius or long-leaved spinifex is a perennial grass with male and female plants. Rhizomes spread through the sand forming tussocks which become important dune stabilisers. The whole female flower head can be 250mm in diameter and when dry, rolls in the wind distributing seeds along the shifting sand.
Flowers: green, brown – April to January. See more on Florabase.
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Lepidosperma gladiatum or coast sword sedge Isabel, Aimee, Timothy, Sam, Tim, Eliza, Liam and Graeme studied this plant and you can see our worksheet here.
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Lepidosperma gladiatum or coast sword sedge is a common, robust perennial sedge with 25mm wide leaves to 1.5m long. Creeping underground rhizomes provided a good source of starch for Aboriginal people. The flowers are closely clustered and have yellow bracts.
The Nyoongar name is kerbein.
Flowers: brown – November to May. See more on Florabase.
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Leucophyta brownii or cushion bush Josh, Joseph, Gareth, Lily, Talani, Lucy, Rumi and Ellen studied this plant and you can see our worksheet here.
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Leucophyta brownii or cushion bush. The name comes from the Greek leucos (white) and phyto (plant). A small dense plant to 60cm tall, which is covered in woolly white hairs as an adaption to harsh foredune conditions. The tiny fruits have feathery hairs to assist in wind dispersal.
Flowers: yellow with white woolly bracts – Most of the year. See more on Florabase.
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