Re: Request of help on some australian plants

Date:          Fri, 29 Jan 1999 14:15:26 GMT
To:            medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
From:          Alessandra Vinciguerra and Cristina Puglisi <puglisi@librs6k.vatlib.it>
Subject:       Request of help on some australian plants
Reply-to:      puglisi@librs6k.vatlib.it

Hi, to everybody. I was wondering if any of the list members from Australia
could help me with some  plant names.
It's almost a follow up to the recent discussion, and it shows how hard it
can be to understand a text when common names are used. 
I am translating a text about Australian nature, but I find that the
reference to plants are a little tricky.  it appears that the common names
used, even when they read like the English ones, refer to different plants
than in Europe. Of course my vocabularies can't be of help, they never refer
to Australian English.
To start with -what's a Billabong? Is it marsh, or dry land? What would be
its vegetation?

A billabong is an ox-bow in a veru old meandering river - are you 
familiar with that term? It can be almost a complete circle and from 
time to time can be flooded or, in times of drought completely 
severed from the main river bed. The vegetation is usally River red 
gum - Eucalyptus camaldulensis, plus She-Oaks - Casaurina sp (various 
from locale to locale), plus cat-tail reeds, sedges, and sundry 
native grasses; after flooding the banks will be covered in rich 
annual grasses and a few wild flowers. Sometimes the land space in 
the centre of the billabong is marshy, sometimes solid ground 
depending, I suppose, on the level of silatation.

 And these are the plants: Snow gum -I guess this 
is an Eucalyptus -which one?

Eucalyptus viscosa is one, there are several I think. Euc. vernicosa 
may be another.

 Marsh marigold - in England this would be Caltha 
palustris -is it over there as well? 

I'm not so familiar it may be an introduced weed along 
permannet waterways, or it could be a wildflower from the 
Australian Alps high up on the snow line and watered by snow 
melt water.
Mountain ash -this really puzzles me, because in the 
following page the text states thet it leaves contain Eucalyptol. 
Therefore it can't be neither Fraxinus sp., nor Sorbus sp.  It must 
be another Eucalyptus.

Eucalyptus regnans, without doubt.

 Sundew plants - I gather it is an 
epyphite palnt -it says they find their food in the air. No idea. 

These are Drosera's - many species of small herbaceous tubers; they 
have many fine leaf hairs, quite long, with a sticky 'few' at the end 
which traps small insects from which the plant extracts nutrients. 
Some people collect them

 Paperbark -can't be a maple, I guess. 
Suppose it's another Eucalyptus, isn't it? 

No, paper-barks are Melaleuca sp; many of them have peeling 
paper thin bark in deep layers, some very attractively coloured 
cream and white

Sweet plum - is this a real plum (Prunus dulcis) or do 
you have another plant that's called like this?

This one I don't know.

 Barramundi - I can't 
understand if this is a plant or an animal - a fish perhaps 

Barramundi is a sub-Tropical estuarine fish - lives where sea 
tides penetrate river mouths. It is a great delicacy and widely 
farmed commercially. LArge quantities are exported to Hong Kong, 
Singapore etc. It is also a highly regarded game fish - for very 
wealthy anglers.

White and 
red apple tree - again, would this be  real Malus sp, maybe 
domestica?

Unclear about this; there are Eucalypts called 'apples' eg Argyle 
Apple - Euc. cinerea. I will try to look them up for you.

Thank you very much,

Alessandra
****************************************************

Alessandra Vinciguerra
American Academy in Rome
Via Masina,5
00153 Roma
Tel:0039\6\5846.444

puglisi@librs6k.vatlib.it

Check the Academy's Web site: http://www.aarome.org

-----------------
Trevor Nottle
Garden Writer, Historian,     
Lecturer and Comsultant 
       
    'Walnut Hill'                          
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     AUSTRALIA

Phone: +618 83394210
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