Autumn’s first week & ‘The A Crew’ in action
Today was a beautiful Sunday and a fantastic team of 17 people gathered to water plants and collect seed at Cottesloe Native Garden. A monoculture of weedy Victorian teatree had been cleared from the site a year ago. CCA volunteers collected seed from approximately 20 local plant species at Cottesloe Native Garden many months before and in May 2015 we planted 1000 seedlings grown from that seed. We watered the new seedlings in well plus we hand watered them again, twice in the Spring last year.
Hand watering Cottesloe Native Garden
Some small plants have succumbed to the long dry summer but over all we are pleased with the survival rate to date. Today we gave all the small plants a good drink. And we hope it won’t be long before the autumn rains arrive, fingers crossed!
Some seed was collected today too. There were very few specimens of our coastal leschenaultia, Lechenaultia linarioides here 15 years ago but we have collected a little seed and are slowly increasing the population. A few plants were flowering beautifully today – as you can see below.
Bucket brigade
Lechenaultia linarioides
Another species that is very important at the site is Banksia sessilis (parrot bush). These prickly shrubs provide great habitat for small birds. Parrot bush flowers over a long period, flowering starts in winter. Insects attracted to the flowers plus the nectar provide food for several species of local honeyeaters. When the seeds mature white tailed black cockatoos and twenty eight parrots eat the seeds. You can see in the photo (on the R) that some of the furry follicles are open and the woody seed separators can be seen. The black winged seeds cling to the sides of the separators.
Banksia sessilis
Parrot bush seed follicles
A big thank you to everyone involved in another excellent ‘first Sunday of the month working bee’.
Seed collecting
Morning tea time
