How many & what sort of vegetables are native to Australia?

Bubble Car said:

How many & what sort of vegetables are native to Australia?

There is one called Manjin from down my way. A sort of reed.

we talking once that have commercial value or all of them?

robadob said:

we talking once that have commercial value or all of them?

Hi robadob :)

Just anything that can be classified as a native vegetable.

theres a bush potato, it grows from the root of a small shrub in the Kimberly . the tree is a perennial.

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=bush+potato+kimberly&num=10&hl=en&biw=1280&bih=880&tbm=isch&tbnid=LWglnSgk1j737M:&imgrefurl=http://www.apscience.org.au/projects/APSF_04_3/apsf_04_3.htm&docid=fntL6_weFmHe7M&imgurl=http://www.apscience.org.au/projects/APSF_04_3/APSF_04_3_image_01_full.jpg&w=600&h=450&ei=0vGUULGsF4atiAf2h4DwDg&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=2&sig=111028756786759668242&page=1&tbnh=139&tbnw=206&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:20,i:137&tx=119&ty=74

http://www.apscience.org.au/projects/APSF_04_3/apsf_04_3.htm

That’s interesting, robadob:

For thousands of years, the ‘Bush Potato’ (ghundi or yarla, in local languages), an Australian plant in the same genus as the sweet potato, was a staple food crop of the indigenous people of north-west Australia. However, as there is now almost no-one living the traditional Aboriginal lifestyle, this once important plant has been neglected.
There are a number of Ipomoea species which are endemic to arid tropical Australia, which bear large edible underground tubers. Unlike the Central American-derived sweet potato (I. batatas), the Australian species have not been subject to the selective forces of hundreds or thousands of years of horticulture. Bush potato species include I. costata, I. polpha and I. argillicola, and probably others which await taxonomic placement. I. costata is the most widespread species, having been recorded from a sector of the country bounded in the east by the NT/Qld border, and the Tropic of Capricorn in the south.

The aims of the research proposed here are to conduct an assessment of genetic diversity in I. costata, to establish the evolutionary affinities of the bush potato species, and to assess their horticultural characteristics and potential value, either as crops by themselves, or as contributors of valuable genetic traits to sweet potato breeding.

goodness, there’s a fair few species of bush food plants hailing from Australia (a continent, no less!). Enough to fill a fair few books and some scribbly threads over the years.

http://www.bushtuckershop.com/prod62.htm

http://www.anbg.gov.au/bibliography/bushfood.html

http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2012/02/13/3429157.htm

http://www.andrewisles.com/all-stock/publication/knowing-growing-and-eating-edible-wild-native-plants-for-southern-australia-2

http://www2b.abc.net.au/tmb/Client/Message.aspx?b=72&m=10872&ps=50&dm=1&pd=3

http://rfcarchives.org.au/Next/Fruits/AusNative/EdibleOzPlants7-83.htm

there’s a bush tucker forum abouts…

Jolly good, let’s see if this thread can squeeze an A-Z list of native vegetables out of all that data.

Eventually :)

Quongdongs. I have eaten them and I am sure they are natives.

The women in this area used to cultivate Microceris, a native yam plant that looks like a dandelion. And they gathered the bulbs of lilies and orchids.

Stealth said:

Quongdongs. I have eaten them and I am sure they are natives.

Fruit I thought? (pedant mode active) :)

jjjust moi said:

Stealth said:

Quongdongs. I have eaten them and I am sure they are natives.

Fruit I thought? (pedant mode active) :)

I am old school with the definition of vegetable – any edible part of a plant. ie fruit is a sub-set of vegetables.

and my definition is “from a annual or biannual plate onlyStealth said:

jjjust moi said:

Stealth said:

Quongdongs. I have eaten them and I am sure they are natives.

Fruit I thought? (pedant mode active) :)

I am old school with the definition of vegetable – any edible part of a plant. ie fruit is a sub-set of vegetables.

plant

Stealth said:

jjjust moi said:

Stealth said:

Quongdongs. I have eaten them and I am sure they are natives.

Fruit I thought? (pedant mode active) :)

I am old school with the definition of vegetable – any edible part of a plant. ie fruit is a sub-set of vegetables.

Well in that case there are quite a few mushrooms, which I have been blogging. Many are introduced or cosmopolitan too.

It is a bit of a far cry nominating fungi as vegetable. Since they are probably closer to animal than vegetable. Though indeed the parts of fungi that we do eat are generally the fruiting bodies.

We call tomatoes vegetables or some of us do and it is true that they are the fruit of a species of vegetation though the vegetative parts of the tomato and the potato are toxic. There are species of Solanum which are highly edible that are native to Australia but there are also many species which are quite toxic.

As neomyrtus said, there is a wide assortment of vegetable foods which were eaten across the various climate zones of Australia. However it was often a long way to walk to get to eat many of them. For exaple the Ipomea tubers are more commonlyfound in the nortern parts of Australia while the Microseris were well known to be cultivated by southern people.
It may sound odd saying cultivated to those who don’t believe the inhabitants of Terra Nullis used agriculture but in effect that is exactly what occurred. By digging yams the soil is tilled. By killing the plant to eat the roots, the seeds are dispersed into the tilth created by the digging. Thus there were vast swathes of such vegetables thriving on the attention before we came along and altered the land use.

I find it surprising that nobody mentioned the warrigal greens, known across the Tasman as NZ spinach. Teragonia tetragonoides. Many people today still cultivate this vegetable.

Saltbush, specifically Old Man Saltbush or Atriplex nummularia was often planted as an edible and fire resistant hedge. Many saltbush are edible and indeed many saltbush fruits are edible such as those of Enchylaena tomentosa. Probably about 10 times as much vitamin C per gram as in an orange.

Speaking of oranges we have trees which are known as wild orange(not a citrus) and several native limes.

The quandong is variously known since there are more than one edible quandong such as wild peach, wild plum and bitter quandong, which is inedible. All of which are Santalum from which family also comes sandalwood.

We have native cherries or so called as such, The mistletoe fruits can also be eaten, much unlike the mistletoe the Northern hemisphere people kiss under.
There are plants we know as cucumber. Well, they are cucurbits.

Many tubers were eaten and amongst the favourites were terrestrial orchids and fringe lilies.

Many grass and tree seeds were eaten and are very much so staples.

Most of these have been documented and the lists exist. Some may be little known without assistance from aboriginal historians. Some people even copy/paste it verbatim. http://www.bushfood.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1143

The tale of how Burke and Wills starved to death while eating a staple food is well known.
List Nardoo under tubers.

There is other stuff which is harvested from vegetables but is not vegetable such as lerps and galls.

Tetragonia.. hmm I should proof read my own typing more often. Sloppiness is all I can put it down to.

There is a plant with a tuber that grows around Perth. It has to be dug up from about a metre below the surface. This plant is thought to have been under continuous cultivation at one site for 5000 years. I can’t recall the name of it now. It is in a book that I have at home.

>Sloppiness is all I can put it down to.

I was going to berate you for it, but it is late, and I let something slide that would normally be a red rag to a bull.

sibeen said:

>Sloppiness is all I can put it down to.

I was going to berate you for it, but it is late, and I let something slide that would normally be a red rag to a bull.

You are speaking to a Taurean ;)

morrie said:

There is a plant with a tuber that grows around Perth. It has to be dug up from about a metre below the surface. This plant is thought to have been under continuous cultivation at one site for 5000 years. I can’t recall the name of it now. It is in a book that I have at home.

Haemodorum spicatum?

There are also many vegetables which were used as herbs both for culinary and medicinal uses. Some of these we named after similar herbs used in Europe, such as the mint bushes.

Some I’ve been instructed not to tell young people about are typically named old man weed, for old people only.
Others should be well known. ie: punty bush is also taxonomically classified as Senna.
Some species of Eremophila have been recognised for medicinal uses by science.

We gave the Leptospermums the name of tea tree because we did use it to substitute as tea.

roughbarked said:

morrie said:

There is a plant with a tuber that grows around Perth. It has to be dug up from about a metre below the surface. This plant is thought to have been under continuous cultivation at one site for 5000 years. I can’t recall the name of it now. It is in a book that I have at home.

Haemodorum spicatum?

No. Thats not it.

morrie said:

roughbarked said:

morrie said:

There is a plant with a tuber that grows around Perth. It has to be dug up from about a metre below the surface. This plant is thought to have been under continuous cultivation at one site for 5000 years. I can’t recall the name of it now. It is in a book that I have at home.

Haemodorum spicatum?

No. Thats not it.

Fair enough.. I’m only guessing.

Warran (Dioscorea hastifolia), a carbohydrate staple, was harvested annually. Digging and turning were evidence of Aboriginal people using hard manual labour to grow and reap crops for a long period of years, stated Grey.

Fields of prepared soil became farms. “Most places where (warran) grows are now in the occupation of the sttlers,” wrote Robert Lyon at Perth in 1833, the year Noongar leader Yagan asked George Fletcher Moore

“You came to our country, you have driven us from our haunts and disturbed us in our occupations; as we walk in our own country we are fired upon; why should white men treat us so?”

Two weeks later, Yagan was shot, beheaded, then skinned for his ceremonial markings.

roughbarked said:

Warran (Dioscorea hastifolia), a carbohydrate staple, was harvested annually. Digging and turning were evidence of Aboriginal people using hard manual labour to grow and reap crops for a long period of years, stated Grey.

Fields of prepared soil became farms. “Most places where (warran) grows are now in the occupation of the sttlers,” wrote Robert Lyon at Perth in 1833, the year Noongar leader Yagan asked George Fletcher Moore

“You came to our country, you have driven us from our haunts and disturbed us in our occupations; as we walk in our own country we are fired upon; why should white men treat us so?”

Two weeks later, Yagan was shot, beheaded, then skinned for his ceremonial markings.

thats the plant. Well found.

thanks for all the information guys

http://www.doltuku.co
http://dir.doltuku.com
http://indonesia.doltuku.com

Yes, thanks for all the information guys :)

doltuku said:

thanks for all the information guys

http://www.doltuku.co
http://dir.doltuku.com
http://indonesia.doltuku.com

something tells me none of these links are about native vegetables….