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RE: Oxalis and another man's treasure

YES!

Journalists seem unable to appreciate the difference between an
introduced spp. and one native to the area.  
Whenever I see a TV journalist rabbiting on about wild flowers you can
be sure they never actually show you a real native species on screen.
Surely they could ask someone??

I have seen some absolute shockers of advertisements as well, showing
the wonderful "wildflower" displays in real estate subdivisions, 
Paterson's curse and bitter blue lupins usually (Echium plantagineum and
Lupinus cosentinii)
It reminds me of Mary Sue's comment earlier about the hiker friends not
realising, how invasive, and not how attractive the Oxalis is.  
When I go bush with friends I am constantly drawing their attention to
what is and isn't native.
They don't mind in the least and one girl gave a talk in a class she was
doing about native and introduced spp. to Western Australia.  I do my
bit.

On the much maligned Oxalis spp. thread there are 800+ spp. in one ref I
looked at.
Someone mentioned earlier that the genus isn't well liked by
Horticulturists, probably as the most well known spp. are known mostly
for their weediness.  I have one clump growing that has deep red stems
holding pubescent deep green trifoliate leaves up to about 3-4 inches
off the ground and it has lovely large violet flowers about 2 inches
across.  A friend supplied the material by pulling up a few strands on a
roadside. All I got were a few tiny little bulbs no more than 1/16th of
an inch in size but they grew like mad. The clump is now three feet long
by two wide and dense enough to keep weeds (other?) at bay. I've no idea
what the spp. is possibly a sub spp. of O. pupurea or P. latifolia.  

Cheers, Rod

Rod Randall
Weed Risk Assessment
Weed Science Group, Agriculture Western Australia
Home Page  http://www.agric.wa.gov.au/progserv/plants/weeds/Weedsci.htm

             "I weed..."

> ----------
> From: 	Andrew Wilson
> Reply To: 	awilson@fda.net
> Sent: 	Wednesday, 25 March 1998 12:44 PM
> To: 	Medit-Plants at UC Davis
> Subject: 	Oxalis and another man's treasure
> 
> Dear All,
> 
> Isn't it frightening to see on your evening news shots of the freeways
> showing South African springflowers with the announcer glowing about
> the
> wonders of Spring and our native springflowers! Our beloved CALTRANS
> has
> sowed miles of our Interstate freeways with Namaqualand Daisies and
> planted
> large areas with yellow and orange mesembryanthemums (no details,
> that's
> not the point). In this part of the State they look terrific at this
> time
> of year and are not doing any harm so this is not criticism of
> CALTRANS for
> planting them. However, it is tragic that our news stations cannot
> inform
> the public that these are not our plants and it is appaling that the
> only
> roadsign I see announces 'Wildflowers' or 'Wildflower Section' and the
> name
> of the company sponsoring them. What is a 'Wildflower'? Hardly one
> that has
> been sprayed in place with paper pulp and fertilizer.
> 
> I think we should post CALTRANS with demands that information about
> plantings be located in a strategic places. The local news stations
> are
> probably beyond all hope, at least here in San Diego.
> 
> Andrew
> San Diego, California
> awilson@fda.net
> 
>
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