It was a gorgeous Monday morning on Rocky Point with the Bushcare group sitting around our log circle for a mid morning cuppa and a chat.
Among the group were Paul Webb, our longtime Bushcare Supervisor, and Alan Hill, a fount of wisdom when it comes to plants (and incidentally our latest community recipient of an OAM for services to Bushcare). They were discussing a mystery plant that had popped up on our site. Mystery plants popping up give us the willies. They scream WEED INVASION and demand prompt action. Twirling his weeding knife in one hand Paul gestured in the direction of the plant and asked Alan if he could identify the miscreant. A seemingly easy task for our local guru and yet he paused. For 10 minutes the two of them ran over every possibility and came up with nothing – neither weed nor native.
Paul Webb examines the ‘Mystery Plant’
If it was a weed – it needed to be removed then and there. The fruit was hanging off it and once that hit the ground directly or via a wallaby or bird – our Rocky Point forest was toast! Our only hope lay with Ecologist Andrew Jennings. Photos were sent with a plea for an immediate ID.
This was a tough call for Andrew. First off he called for a close-up of the leaf.
Next he asked us to check for latex in the branch. No latex. His next suggestion was the possibility that it was a species of Podocarpus but he was reluctant to make a definite call as the leaves were throwing him. Alan agreed. But 10 minutes later Andrew was back again with a definite answer. It was a Santalum obtusifolium!
What?
Santalum obtusifolium – a native plant found in woodland communities but very rarely in the Pittwater area. Andrew has seen it only twice in 12 years and Alan Hill who has lived here for 40 years has never seen it! So a particularly rare plant on the Western Shores.
Santalum obtusifolium is an exacting plant in its requirements and there is much we don’t know about its needs. It’s a parasitic plant living off the roots of a tree. We dont know whether there is one just particular host tree, several or many. We don’t know whether the seeds can lie dormant in the ground for years or whether they rely on birds for propagation. So we have no answer as to how a single plant popped up in our bushcare site.
But there it was as large as life and very healthy. Under further instruction from Andrew we removed a third of the fruit (according to bushcare guidelines) and took 9 berries to Indigo Nursery in Ingleside for propagation.
Santalum obtusifolium – a native plant – very rarely in the Pittwater area
A very thoughtful group departed the site that morning with a number of emotions. We were all cock-a-hoop about discovering a rare native plant. But some of us who had casually eaten one of those rare berries were also privately deciding not to go on about the taste. And as Paul pocketed his weeding knife he was considering his own narrow escape from destroying a rare native plant on his favourite site in Pittwater.
Bushcare – not an activity for sissies…
ARTICLE by Lesley Stevens