Recently some of us were discussing murnong here on the forum. This morning I decided to go out and dig up one of the plants, if I could find/identify one and take the ID the next step. Previously I had put up these two observations:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189302477

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/189302298

Today I have added roots and seeds. I’m hoping I got the right plant, there were no flowers around.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/197101404

“Microseris lanceolata is an Australian alpine herb with yellow flowers and one of three plants known as murnong or yam daisy along with Microseris scapigera and Microseris walteri. The plant is found in southern parts of Australia, including Victoria, NSW and ACT.”

How do you tell the difference between that and a dandelion?

I saw some plants that I assumed to be dandelions on the top of Mt Kosciusko. Dandelions? Or Murnong?

mollwollfumble said:

“Microseris lanceolata is an Australian alpine herb with yellow flowers and one of three plants known as murnong or yam daisy along with Microseris scapigera and Microseris walteri. The plant is found in southern parts of Australia, including Victoria, NSW and ACT.”

How do you tell the difference between that and a dandelion?

I saw some plants that I assumed to be dandelions on the top of Mt Kosciusko. Dandelions? Or Murnong?

The simplest answer to that is that dandelions (Taraxacum) have hollow flower stems. But of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that. There are also Cat’s Ears (Hypochaeris), Hawkbits (Leontodon), Hawkbeard (Crepis) all introduced. And to complicate things more, there is a native “yellow daisy dandelion looking thing” (Picris). To sort them out you need to know if they have branched or unbranched flower stems, if the stems are smooth or not, grooved or not, if they produce latex in the stems. And then you have to look at the seeds to see if they are beaked or not beaked (magnifier stuff). The murnong buds nod…but then so do those of Leontodon saxitatillis. It’s complicated.

buffy said:

mollwollfumble said:

“Microseris lanceolata is an Australian alpine herb with yellow flowers and one of three plants known as murnong or yam daisy along with Microseris scapigera and Microseris walteri. The plant is found in southern parts of Australia, including Victoria, NSW and ACT.”

How do you tell the difference between that and a dandelion?

I saw some plants that I assumed to be dandelions on the top of Mt Kosciusko. Dandelions? Or Murnong?

The simplest answer to that is that dandelions (Taraxacum) have hollow flower stems. But of course, it’s a bit more complicated than that. There are also Cat’s Ears (Hypochaeris), Hawkbits (Leontodon), Hawkbeard (Crepis) all introduced. And to complicate things more, there is a native “yellow daisy dandelion looking thing” (Picris). To sort them out you need to know if they have branched or unbranched flower stems, if the stems are smooth or not, grooved or not, if they produce latex in the stems. And then you have to look at the seeds to see if they are beaked or not beaked (magnifier stuff). The murnong buds nod…but then so do those of Leontodon saxitatillis. It’s complicated.

Yeah. It can be that.

Very good buffy, that added to your older floral observations now make it an excellent and more complete data collection for that species. Hope you agree it was worth going back to obtain that information as their identification value have been greatly advanced.

PermeateFree said:

Very good buffy, that added to your older floral observations now make it an excellent and more complete data collection for that species. Hope you agree it was worth going back to obtain that information as their identification value have been greatly advanced.

Thank you. It could be said that I am becoming rather obsessed. But I’m happy with that. Also, because I went back, I discovered that the particular roadside is quite a little herb field. Along with weeds (wild carrot, pennyroyal, wand mullein and what I think is a Lotus of some sort), this morning I found Eryngium vesiculosum (I’d seen it in leaf, but not in flower there), Lobelia irrigua (I knew that was there but didn’t know it would still be flowering), Apium prostratum (didn’t know that one, I guessed at Platysace and have been corrected. Not seen it there before), and Calocephalus lacteus (I had to search to ID that one). So it was a Good Thing to return to the site. And worth keeping it on my list of places to keep checking. I’ve been quite surprised what I’ve found at some randomly chosen roadside places in the last 12 months. In areas that are mowed/slashed and sometimes ploughed for firebreak. It makes me happy to know how resilient these plants can be. (I hate the way that word is overused these days)

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

Very good buffy, that added to your older floral observations now make it an excellent and more complete data collection for that species. Hope you agree it was worth going back to obtain that information as their identification value have been greatly advanced.

Thank you. It could be said that I am becoming rather obsessed. But I’m happy with that. Also, because I went back, I discovered that the particular roadside is quite a little herb field. Along with weeds (wild carrot, pennyroyal, wand mullein and what I think is a Lotus of some sort), this morning I found Eryngium vesiculosum (I’d seen it in leaf, but not in flower there), Lobelia irrigua (I knew that was there but didn’t know it would still be flowering), Apium prostratum (didn’t know that one, I guessed at Platysace and have been corrected. Not seen it there before), and Calocephalus lacteus (I had to search to ID that one). So it was a Good Thing to return to the site. And worth keeping it on my list of places to keep checking. I’ve been quite surprised what I’ve found at some randomly chosen roadside places in the last 12 months. In areas that are mowed/slashed and sometimes ploughed for firebreak. It makes me happy to know how resilient these plants can be. (I hate the way that word is overused these days)

Obsessed is good in this instance. Keep on keeping on. :)

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

Very good buffy, that added to your older floral observations now make it an excellent and more complete data collection for that species. Hope you agree it was worth going back to obtain that information as their identification value have been greatly advanced.

Thank you. It could be said that I am becoming rather obsessed. But I’m happy with that. Also, because I went back, I discovered that the particular roadside is quite a little herb field. Along with weeds (wild carrot, pennyroyal, wand mullein and what I think is a Lotus of some sort), this morning I found Eryngium vesiculosum (I’d seen it in leaf, but not in flower there), Lobelia irrigua (I knew that was there but didn’t know it would still be flowering), Apium prostratum (didn’t know that one, I guessed at Platysace and have been corrected. Not seen it there before), and Calocephalus lacteus (I had to search to ID that one). So it was a Good Thing to return to the site. And worth keeping it on my list of places to keep checking. I’ve been quite surprised what I’ve found at some randomly chosen roadside places in the last 12 months. In areas that are mowed/slashed and sometimes ploughed for firebreak. It makes me happy to know how resilient these plants can be. (I hate the way that word is overused these days)

:)))

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

Very good buffy, that added to your older floral observations now make it an excellent and more complete data collection for that species. Hope you agree it was worth going back to obtain that information as their identification value have been greatly advanced.

Thank you. It could be said that I am becoming rather obsessed. But I’m happy with that. Also, because I went back, I discovered that the particular roadside is quite a little herb field. Along with weeds (wild carrot, pennyroyal, wand mullein and what I think is a Lotus of some sort), this morning I found Eryngium vesiculosum (I’d seen it in leaf, but not in flower there), Lobelia irrigua (I knew that was there but didn’t know it would still be flowering), Apium prostratum (didn’t know that one, I guessed at Platysace and have been corrected. Not seen it there before), and Calocephalus lacteus (I had to search to ID that one). So it was a Good Thing to return to the site. And worth keeping it on my list of places to keep checking. I’ve been quite surprised what I’ve found at some randomly chosen roadside places in the last 12 months. In areas that are mowed/slashed and sometimes ploughed for firebreak. It makes me happy to know how resilient these plants can be. (I hate the way that word is overused these days)

:)))

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Nice work Buffy.
Getting the seed head looks to be a good way to ID your murnong. I’m guessing, based on the number of pappus (which I had to look up), that you may have Microseris scapigera. According to VicFlora, walteri has around 10 pappus, compared to scapigera which has ‘pappus of 30–66 barbellate bristles’.

This is their picture of Microseris scapigera seed heads-

And this is their pic of Microseris walteri seed head

buffy said:

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

I have put seed into damp paper towel in the fridge for a few days to a week. Then scatter onto soil so they get a little bit of light, watering well each day as long as your soil is free draining. You can also push the seed into the soil point down, leaving the pappus exposed above the soil, which helps to know where they are too. Germination is best after good rain or a thunderstorm soaking, I have found. And they don’t like germinating in the hottest part of summer.

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

Thank you. It could be said that I am becoming rather obsessed. But I’m happy with that. Also, because I went back, I discovered that the particular roadside is quite a little herb field. Along with weeds (wild carrot, pennyroyal, wand mullein and what I think is a Lotus of some sort), this morning I found Eryngium vesiculosum (I’d seen it in leaf, but not in flower there), Lobelia irrigua (I knew that was there but didn’t know it would still be flowering), Apium prostratum (didn’t know that one, I guessed at Platysace and have been corrected. Not seen it there before), and Calocephalus lacteus (I had to search to ID that one). So it was a Good Thing to return to the site. And worth keeping it on my list of places to keep checking. I’ve been quite surprised what I’ve found at some randomly chosen roadside places in the last 12 months. In areas that are mowed/slashed and sometimes ploughed for firebreak. It makes me happy to know how resilient these plants can be. (I hate the way that word is overused these days)

:)))

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

ruby said:

Nice work Buffy.
Getting the seed head looks to be a good way to ID your murnong. I’m guessing, based on the number of pappus (which I had to look up), that you may have Microseris scapigera. According to VicFlora, walteri has around 10 pappus, compared to scapigera which has ‘pappus of 30–66 barbellate bristles’.

This is their picture of Microseris scapigera seed heads-

And this is their pic of Microseris walteri seed head

The roots are also a good id feature, only the wrong piece was selected, it having a rounded bottom, whereas the excluded portion had the tapering root which is the important feature. It however can be seen on the complete plant photos, although the rounded base piece should not be used in INaturalist as it is confussing.

PermeateFree said:

ruby said:

Nice work Buffy.
Getting the seed head looks to be a good way to ID your murnong. I’m guessing, based on the number of pappus (which I had to look up), that you may have Microseris scapigera. According to VicFlora, walteri has around 10 pappus, compared to scapigera which has ‘pappus of 30–66 barbellate bristles’.

This is their picture of Microseris scapigera seed heads-

And this is their pic of Microseris walteri seed head

The roots are also a good id feature, only the wrong piece was selected, it having a rounded bottom, whereas the excluded portion had the tapering root which is the important feature. It however can be seen on the complete plant photos, although the rounded base piece should not be used in INaturalist as it is confussing.

confussing = confusing

PermeateFree said:

PermeateFree said:

ruby said:

Nice work Buffy.
Getting the seed head looks to be a good way to ID your murnong. I’m guessing, based on the number of pappus (which I had to look up), that you may have Microseris scapigera. According to VicFlora, walteri has around 10 pappus, compared to scapigera which has ‘pappus of 30–66 barbellate bristles’.

This is their picture of Microseris scapigera seed heads-

And this is their pic of Microseris walteri seed head

The roots are also a good id feature, only the wrong piece was selected, it having a rounded bottom, whereas the excluded portion had the tapering root which is the important feature. It however can be seen on the complete plant photos, although the rounded base piece should not be used in INaturalist as it is confussing.

confussing = confusing

I’ve been to the facebook murnong group and copied some pictures of walteri and scapigera tubers. I will resize them and post them tomorrow afternoon, as they are quite good too.
After more looking at my plants I think my ones are scapigera too, not lanceolata.

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

:)))

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

PermeateFree said:

ruby said:

Nice work Buffy.
Getting the seed head looks to be a good way to ID your murnong. I’m guessing, based on the number of pappus (which I had to look up), that you may have Microseris scapigera. According to VicFlora, walteri has around 10 pappus, compared to scapigera which has ‘pappus of 30–66 barbellate bristles’.

This is their picture of Microseris scapigera seed heads-

And this is their pic of Microseris walteri seed head

The roots are also a good id feature, only the wrong piece was selected, it having a rounded bottom, whereas the excluded portion had the tapering root which is the important feature. It however can be seen on the complete plant photos, although the rounded base piece should not be used in INaturalist as it is confussing.

The rounded base was broken off when I dug it. That is why I cut that one in half, because it was already damaged anyway and I was curious about the insides.

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

There not unlike twiggy Mullen omly not as flamboyant.

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

Well done, it must like you. Do you talk to it?

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

Thank you. It could be said that I am becoming rather obsessed. But I’m happy with that. Also, because I went back, I discovered that the particular roadside is quite a little herb field. Along with weeds (wild carrot, pennyroyal, wand mullein and what I think is a Lotus of some sort), this morning I found Eryngium vesiculosum (I’d seen it in leaf, but not in flower there), Lobelia irrigua (I knew that was there but didn’t know it would still be flowering), Apium prostratum (didn’t know that one, I guessed at Platysace and have been corrected. Not seen it there before), and Calocephalus lacteus (I had to search to ID that one). So it was a Good Thing to return to the site. And worth keeping it on my list of places to keep checking. I’ve been quite surprised what I’ve found at some randomly chosen roadside places in the last 12 months. In areas that are mowed/slashed and sometimes ploughed for firebreak. It makes me happy to know how resilient these plants can be. (I hate the way that word is overused these days)

:)))

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Yes. :)

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

Nice one!

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

buffy said:

And as I’ve already broken the law by digging up a native plant from the roadside, I’m going to put those seeds into a pot of dirt and let them have a go at making plants. I’ve got a series of pots. I don’t do all the fancy stuff. I just put some soil in a pot, scatter the seeds on top and wait. Usually spectacularly unsuccessfully. But sometimes it works – I’m looking at you, Xanthorrhoea minor now nearly 20 years old and seed harvested after a fire.

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

I love your X. minor. A guy a few blocks away has planted every species of Xanthorrhoea, but X. minor is the one that outperforms all of them for spectacular flower spikes.
The beauty of growing species like this is being able to harvest seed as it becomes ripe, which you can then take back to the original area, or just keep growing more to share around. That’s what I have been doing with my murnong, and now am doing with native lemon grass.

ruby said:

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

I love your X. minor. A guy a few blocks away has planted every species of Xanthorrhoea, but X. minor is the one that outperforms all of them for spectacular flower spikes.
The beauty of growing species like this is being able to harvest seed as it becomes ripe, which you can then take back to the original area, or just keep growing more to share around. That’s what I have been doing with my murnong, and now am doing with native lemon grass.

So you don’t need any seed now?

ruby said:

buffy said:

PermeateFree said:

Has your grown X. minor flowered yet or just adding a few more leaves each year?

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

I love your X. minor. A guy a few blocks away has planted every species of Xanthorrhoea, but X. minor is the one that outperforms all of them for spectacular flower spikes.
The beauty of growing species like this is being able to harvest seed as it becomes ripe, which you can then take back to the original area, or just keep growing more to share around. That’s what I have been doing with my murnong, and now am doing with native lemon grass.

I collected the seed after “our” bushfire in 2005 brought on an excess of reproduction. Flowers everywhere! I initially got 20 germinations, but not all survived. Some didn’t like pricking out and some didn’t like where I later planted them when they had about 3 “leaves”. I’ve ended up with just this one. Excruciatingly slow to grow…I recall counting the “leaves” often when there were less than ten. For what seemed like years. Here is a photo of it in 2012.

I don’t do a lot of propogation it’s pretty hit and miss. My latest is a couple of Acacia exudans – Casterton wattle, which VicFlora lists as critically endangered. Although there is plenty of it on our covenant, in the Weecurra State Forest next door and even along the roadside in the area. I had a request last year for seed, and I kept 4 seeds for myself out of curiosity. Initially 3 germinated quite quickly, and the fourth one showed up a couple of months later. Impressive germination rate. I lost two at pricking out and last week I planted the first one out into the garden. So from seed collected first week in January 2022 to this now. The other one is still being (marginally) coddled in its pot. But I’m thinking I’ll very soon put it in front of the Xanth. I need to cut back the grass around there first though. I’d like to get wallaby grass going there instead, under the wattle. The Correas are being Auntie Plants for the wattle now.

…..

roughbarked said:

ruby said:

buffy said:

It’s flowered twice. In 2017 it wasn’t very good at making a flower spike:

But in 2022 it got its act together. Although I did have to put a thin stake in to hold it up straight and out of the way of me with the mower and dogs running around the garden.

……………

I love your X. minor. A guy a few blocks away has planted every species of Xanthorrhoea, but X. minor is the one that outperforms all of them for spectacular flower spikes.
The beauty of growing species like this is being able to harvest seed as it becomes ripe, which you can then take back to the original area, or just keep growing more to share around. That’s what I have been doing with my murnong, and now am doing with native lemon grass.

So you don’t need any seed now?

Nope, I was given a native lemon grass plant a year ago by people who were having trouble growing them. It went to seed, I harvested it, grew around 10 new plants. It recently went to seed again and I harvested and planted the new seed, and now have about 40 more seedlings. I am experimenting with the best way to build more numbers.

I’m not sure if the following pictures of Microseris walteri and Microseris scapigera tubers will help you Buffy, but here you go. Hopefully you may see something helpful when you compare to your tuber.
In all the pictures I have seen of walteri tubers, they tend towards a chunkier shape, whereas scapigera looks longer and thinner, more like a parsnip shape and skin texture.

Scapigera, one year old plant by the look of it-

Walteri, no details given on how old the plants were at harvest, I assume around a year old-

This looks like my M. scapigera plants when they grow to the second and third year. i have successfully been able to divide plants like these and grow the offsets. I have wondered if this is a trait that could have been selected and utilised, as my clumpy plants get the original larger tuber which could be eaten, and then the smaller ones to be planted to increase the population

 

ruby said:

I’m not sure if the following pictures of Microseris walteri and Microseris scapigera tubers will help you Buffy, but here you go. Hopefully you may see something helpful when you compare to your tuber.
In all the pictures I have seen of walteri tubers, they tend towards a chunkier shape, whereas scapigera looks longer and thinner, more like a parsnip shape and skin texture.

Scapigera, one year old plant by the look of it-

Walteri, no details given on how old the plants were at harvest, I assume around a year old-

This looks like my M. scapigera plants when they grow to the second and third year. i have successfully been able to divide plants like these and grow the offsets. I have wondered if this is a trait that could have been selected and utilised, as my clumpy plants get the original larger tuber which could be eaten, and then the smaller ones to be planted to increase the population

 

Thanks ruby. I’ve just scattered the putative M. scapigera seed across the top of a pot and put the pot with my other pots that have orchid and other seed scattered hopefully. They are just sitting in a sheltered spot and letting the weather do its thing. On the dividing the clumps thing…We live on the Southern edge of a big broad plain between us and Gariwerd (the Grampians). According to “The People of Gariwerd” by Gib Wettenhall:

“Armed with their digging sticks and baskets, each with a carrying capacity of up to 30kg, the Djab wurrung and Jardwadjali women and children gathered immense quantities of tuberous roots and edible food. One of the most important year-long food staples was the yam daisy, or murnong. It’s yellow dandelion like flowers once covered the grasslands in their millions. Robinson describes the sight in 1841 of women “spread over the plain as far as I could see them…each had a load as much as she could carry”

Over a period of a few years the women would dig over much of the plains country within their range to get at the sweet tasting, starch rich clumps of murnong tubers.

If they were taking such vast numbers, why did murnong not become scarce? The answer is that the women only thinned the clumps of tubers. Moreover, the digging aerated the soil, incorporating litter and ash, thereby cultivating and fertilising the tubers of murnong and other edible orchid and lily species.

Early settlers remarked on the loose, absorbent nature of the soil when they first arrived. But the sheep they brought with them not only dug out the shallow rooted murnong within 12 months; their hard hoofs also compacted the cultivated soil of the Djab wurrung and Jardwadjali.”

I read this many, many years ago and it all made a lot of sense.

ruby said:

I’m not sure if the following pictures of Microseris walteri and Microseris scapigera tubers will help you Buffy, but here you go. Hopefully you may see something helpful when you compare to your tuber.
In all the pictures I have seen of walteri tubers, they tend towards a chunkier shape, whereas scapigera looks longer and thinner, more like a parsnip shape and skin texture.

Scapigera, one year old plant by the look of it-

Walteri, no details given on how old the plants were at harvest, I assume around a year old-

This looks like my M. scapigera plants when they grow to the second and third year. i have successfully been able to divide plants like these and grow the offsets. I have wondered if this is a trait that could have been selected and utilised, as my clumpy plants get the original larger tuber which could be eaten, and then the smaller ones to be planted to increase the population

 

At the bottom of the species id features, Wiki under Murnong gives the following guide to the tuber edibility of the three species.

Microseris walteri – sweet-tasting, both raw and cooked.
Microseris lanceolata – bitter, slightly fibrous and not particularly palatable.
Microseris scapigera – slightly fibrous, and slightly, but tolerably bitter.

ruby said:

roughbarked said:

ruby said:

I love your X. minor. A guy a few blocks away has planted every species of Xanthorrhoea, but X. minor is the one that outperforms all of them for spectacular flower spikes.
The beauty of growing species like this is being able to harvest seed as it becomes ripe, which you can then take back to the original area, or just keep growing more to share around. That’s what I have been doing with my murnong, and now am doing with native lemon grass.

So you don’t need any seed now?

Nope, I was given a native lemon grass plant a year ago by people who were having trouble growing them. It went to seed, I harvested it, grew around 10 new plants. It recently went to seed again and I harvested and planted the new seed, and now have about 40 more seedlings. I am experimenting with the best way to build more numbers.

No worries, I’ve been giving away seedlings too. A neighbour who I gave some to was walking along one of my paths and he pointed yo a seedling ha had come up in the path and asked “is that the lemon grass?” and I said yes, I told you it could come up everywere once it has seed.

my favorite wildflower
but definitely recommended
to be allowed to escape into the wild
although it’s related to many common garden favourites,
in the wrong hands it’s considered highly toxic

Ogmog said:

my favorite wildflower
but definitely recommended
to be allowed to escape into the wild
although it’s related to many common garden favourites,
in the wrong hands it’s considered highly toxic

Didn’t you mean NOT recommended?

CORRECTION:

my favorite wildflower
but definitely NOT recommended
to be allowed to escape into the wild !!!

roughbarked said:

Ogmog said:

my favorite wildflower
but definitely recommended
to be allowed to escape into the wild
although it’s related to many common garden favourites,
in the wrong hands it’s considered highly toxic

Didn’t you mean NOT recommended?

WELL SPOTTED
you caught that quicker
than it took for me to re-read it

Ogmog said:

roughbarked said:

Ogmog said:

my favorite wildflower
but definitely recommended
to be allowed to escape into the wild
although it’s related to many common garden favourites,
in the wrong hands it’s considered highly toxic

Didn’t you mean NOT recommended?

WELL SPOTTED
you caught that quicker
than it took for me to re-read it

JIMSON WEED

Ogmog said:

Ogmog said:

roughbarked said:

Didn’t you mean NOT recommended?

WELL SPOTTED
you caught that quicker
than it took for me to re-read it

JIMSON WEED

It is a weed.

roughbarked said:

Ogmog said:

Ogmog said:

WELL SPOTTED
you caught that quicker
than it took for me to re-read it

JIMSON WEED

It is a weed.

Gotta’ admit
it’s a PRETTY specimen
even though it’s considered a WEED

It’s considered a “TRAFFIC STOPPER”
due to people pulling over just to Take Pictures

Ogmog said:

roughbarked said:

Ogmog said:

JIMSON WEED

It is a weed.

Gotta’ admit
it’s a PRETTY specimen
even though it’s considered a WEED

It’s considered a “TRAFFIC STOPPER”
due to people pulling over just to Take Pictures

Also known as the Devil’s Trumpet, which should make people a little cautious. It certainly made an impression on me as I can still remember my first encounter of it many years ago.

PermeateFree said:

Ogmog said:

roughbarked said:

It is a weed.

Gotta’ admit
it’s a PRETTY specimen
even though it’s considered a WEED

It’s considered a “TRAFFIC STOPPER”
due to people pulling over just to Take Pictures

Also known as the Devil’s Trumpet, which should make people a little cautious. It certainly made an impression on me as I can still remember my first encounter of it many years ago.

s’truth
my encounter was with it’s cousin Deadly Nightshade

Ogmog said:

my favorite wildflower
but definitely NOT recommended
to be allowed to escape into the wild
although it’s related to many common garden favourites,
in the wrong hands it’s considered highly toxic

Solanaceae