Episode 23 The bush mate!

Drop me line at stemsleavesroots@gmail.com

or by me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/StemsLeavesRoots

  My dear leaflets,

I am going to talk today about the Bush.  As you know, my background is native plants and where do you find most of these plants?  Out bush.  I am not going to pretend I know everything about the bush, but a million years ago, I did a diploma in Natural Resource management which gave me a pretty broad idea about the bush.  

1. https://www.timeout.com/australia/attractions/best-rainforests-in-australia
2. Figure 1. Study sites locations in Eucalyptus open forests of south-eastern (SE) Australia, where: × is Pyrenees, ● is Rushworth, and ■ is Toombullup. 
3. https://www.anbg.gov.au/aust-veg/veg-map.html
4. https://www.acs.gov.au/pages/hazards-understanding
5. https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/resources/natural-hazards-and-climate-change/
6. https://soe.dcceew.gov.au/overview/pressures/climate-change-and-extreme-events
7. https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/black-saturday-bushfires
8. https://www.tern.org.au/ecosystem-data/
9. https://austhrutime.com/woodlands_australia.htm

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hi, my name is Dani and I am a horticulturalist. Welcome to my little podcast, Leaves, Stems and Roots. I acknowledge the traditional owners of the land we are living. I would like to pay my respects to elders past and present. It's the bush, mate! Hello, my dear leaflets. What is the bush? Quote, land covered with the natural vegetation... often including trees, shrubs and other native plants. It can be either remnant areas of the original natural vegetation or areas that have been altered but still retain the characteristic structure and plant species of the natural vegetation. Oxford Dictionary. Hello, my dear leaflets. I'm going to talk about the bush today. As you know, my background is in native plants. And where do you find most of these plants? Out in the wilds, out bush. I'm not going to pretend I know everything about the bush, but a million years ago, I did a diploma in natural resource management, which gave me a pretty broad idea about it. I believe some of my listeners probably know a lot more about the bush than I do. I have been to many different ecosystems in the past, but unfortunately, my most seen ecosystem these days is suburbia.

UNKNOWN: 1:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 1:27

Today I'm going to talk about what makes the bush important. So we're talking about the different vegetation ecosystems Australia mostly has. I'm also going to talk about how climate change and natural phenomenon can change this. I will also be talking, therefore, about fire and flood. Next time I'm going to waffle about how we can incorporate a bit of bush into our own backyards. Did you know... you could drop me a line. Yeah, yeah, through Instagram and Facebook. But also you could email me at stemsleavesroots at gmail.com. Or if you're feeling a bit generous, you can shout me a coffee through the link in the show note. Okay, my dear leaflets, let's get into it. First of all, who here loves the bush? I do. I don't get out there as much as I would like to, but this may give me the incentive to go. The bush can mean different things to different people, but nine times out of ten, we're all probably saying the same thing, but it might be just a differing of vegetation that we like more. Australia's vegetation is broadly categorised in several types based on dominant plant life and environmental factors, including climate, rainfall and soil condition. These vegetation zones include rainforest, forest, woodland, scrubland shrub land and grassland but before i get into that what am i meaning when i say closed or open forest open forest means that the crown cover is about 50 to 80 percent of the ground which is covered by tree canopy and closed forest is 80 plus which is the ground is covered by the tree canopy Okay, rainforest. I'm sure you know what this is, but if not, it is known as a closed ecosystem with evergreen vegetation with a rich biodiversity and high rainfall and humidity. So if you are in Victoria, think of the Dandenong Ranges. I used to have to drive through this every week when I was working at the nursery. It was so beautiful and I loved that drive. Across Australia, a few would be the Down Tree in Queensland, the Tark Cane Rainforest in Tassie, Gondwana Rainforest in New South Wales, Queensland, and the Litchfield National Park in the Northern Territory. There are many more, which I will add a link to the show notes. The second vegetation type is known as forest, which was once known as sclerophoric forest. These are dominated by trees with variations in tree density and heights. Examples include tall open forests, tall closed forests and low open forests. Sclerophyll Forest I'm sure if any of you have looked up a plant, I bet you have seen, found in sclerophyll, Forests, especially in old books. Most of my ID books say this. But what does it mean? I'm sure like myself, there are many of you who do know this. But if you don't, it will say it means that the majority of the woodlands in Australia is this particular vegetation. And it means that it is a conglomerate, great word that, of trees which are mostly evergreen trees. and these plants adapt well to drier conditions and are predominantly covered in eucalypts but also sharing with other sclerophic plants such as acacias and banksias but because of the growing diversity in forests they have changed the name to open or closed forests omitting the sclerophic prefix but still having those particular species in these forests which also means therefore and many other trees that are found in these vegetation ecosystems. An example of this in Australia is the Blue Mountains in New South Wales, which I used to go to a lot when I was a kid. And this has a diverse range of forest ecosystems. Also, two other examples in Victoria are Wombat Forest and Sherbrooke Forest. The next vegetation ecosystem is called a woodland ecosystem. Is it just me, or does anyone else think of Shrek and the Fairy Tale Woodland? Just me? Okay, let's move on. Woodlands are an open forest structure with a mixture of trees, shrubs and grasses. Examples of these would be the Great Western Woodlands, located in the southwestern Australia, Box Iron Bark Woodlands, which are characteristic to Victoria, and the Grassy Woodlands of Queensland. We then have shrublands, which, and I know this will surprise you, but are dominated by shrubs and bushes. Some of these you may have heard are of the most distinct shrub species of the shrubland. This is hard to say, shrubland. So this includes acacia shrubland, mulga shrubland, malaluca shrublands, and kwong kong shrublands. We then have the scrub. And no, we're not talking about scrubbers. or even that stand show, or even that other show about doctors, which I absolutely love, but the scrub. What kind of vegetation do we have here? It's mostly a dense tangled growth of shrubs and woody plants. A few examples of this is the mallee and brigolo scrub. The mallee is of a multi-stemmed eucalyptus, and the brigolo is considered endangered now, but is still found in lochia and scenic rims. The final main vegetation system is grassland, which again, I know this will shock you, is dominated by grasses with varying degree of tree or shrub cover. Some examples of these is the Murray-Darling Basin, tropical savannas of northern Australia and temperate grassland of New South Wales and Victoria. Within these ecosystems, there are a multitude of other systems and we could be here all day if i were to tell you all about them and by the end i think i would just end up talking to myself as climate change comes through and our seasons stuff up everything uh the plants really don't know what they're doing So the ecosystem spread or changed completely. This also happens obviously through big fires, which may burn down original systems to birth new ones. Who remembers? Who remembers Black Saturday? I remember when it came through, it was very hot. To my non-Australian listeners, Black Saturday happened... from the 7th of February to the 14th of March in 2009. It was the longest and hottest heat wave we ever had until, well, no, we've ever had thus far. It came across Victoria over 450,000 hectares or 1.1 million acres of land. 2,000 residential houses were lost. 3,500 businesses were destroyed and the most phenomenal number of 173 people lost their lives. The hottest day's temperature rose to 47 degrees Celsius or 116.6 Fahrenheit. And it wasn't just those fatalities, but a lot of people ended up really sick because of such a big heat wave. If you were anywhere in Victoria or even across the country, you were touched by it. It was also known around the world. I am really sorry for the lives we lost. Across this barren land, native vegetation forests and wildlife habitats were also destroyed, and there was a ridiculous amount of animals that were lost. However, there were tiny rays of hopes in some areas. Vegetation was starting to come back, or some were coming back after the fires. Scarification of long-gone seeds were coming back because of the fires' intervention, and species of long-forgotten species came back and have slowly turned the blank, smoky sceneries into different vegetation ecosystems. So a silver lining, perhaps. Other natural disasters do this as well to the ecosystems of the country. or of the world. Floods incur erosion the plants are washed away and vegetation may not come back until the animals do everything makes an ecosystem from the ant to the wombat warren because to ensure these critters survive so too does the canopy overhead the water quality is impacted as chemicals and nasties can be carried in the flood waters and even though they can do awful things to the ecosystems they can also change them completely in fact when some of the seeds wash from one area to another This may end up as a good thing or it may be very negative. It can also stuff up the soil structure and leach out the necessary nutrients needed and can end up increasing salinity, which will destroy the plants that have survived. Here in Victoria, we don't have that many floods, not that I can think of, although we have had a few. But the biggest floods are in the northern Queensland. I have a friend who lives up there and says, Matter-of-factly that her house has been flooded more than once. Cyclones and storms can cause problems too. I can't remember any in Victoria of cyclones, but we do have quite a few substantial storms which can cause flooding and sometimes fires. Environmental impact of these are the same as fire and flooding. Trees can be so destroyed, erosion and water quality affected. And then there is drought, which as an arid country... All of Australia has seen drought one time or another and multiple times. It annoys me something chronic that new homes had not been built with water tanks from day one. It should be standard now, but after the pandemic, this is not adhered to as much. And I know this for a fact because some apartment blocks had been designed to have them before 2020. And while we don't like talking about 2020, But poo hits the proverbial and everything was too expensive. And unfortunately, a lot of apartment buildings were built without the bells and whistles. I take it that a water tank in Australia was not deemed to be a mandatory commodity. Anyway, most of... Queensland have water restrictions. And even though Victoria are okay for water at the moment, I believe that we always should be at least a two on water restrictions. But hey, what do I know? I'm not a politician who only plans three years in advance. Droughts mean no water, so therefore everything slowly dies back and eventually the critters will move away and we end up with a husk of land. The other natural disaster is obvious. Climate change. Climate change. I touched on this briefly before. So how does this impact our bushlands? Intensity of heat change and therefore will change the cycles of plants and fauna. This will also be indicators for increasing fires and other natural disasters. Sea levels are rising due to the ice caps melting, which increases chances of erosion and flooding against coastal areas. Rainfall changes, which will lead to humidity and drought. And yes, I know this is not a political podcast i went a little in a different tangent there didn't i anyway lucky this is not a political podcast The bush to me is sacred and we need to continue to learn about them and how to keep them preserved as much as we can, not only in my country but in every country in the world. It really scares me after seeing sitcoms do possible future episodes and there is only a hologram of a tree because we've stuffed the earth too much. Okay, so that's enough for bush at the moment. There are oodles of different websites that you can become a part of. There's even BushWalk. that I've actually signed up for and there's areas that you can go which are probably close to your area. If you just google the bush I'm sure things will come up for you to have a look and what you can do to help the bush. So what's in my garden at the moment? Everything has gone nuts. I really have to get in there. I haven't mowed my lawn for a while but you know that is the way it is. My cuttings are doing really well though. I have Hibertia scandens, which is just beautiful. I'm so glad it is doing well, as well as Coria, of course. And I have also rosemary cuttings and they're doing great too. I planted some Vietnamese mint into a bigger pot with potting mix the other day. I found it on a clearance table and it was going, it was not very well as well. And I don't know if you remember from season one when I talked about how Vietnamese mint is kind of hard to grow and because it's very water hungry. Well, I don't know what I did, but it's going gangbusters. So that's exciting. I also have kale, which has also gone off as well as silverbeet. I have all my natives are doing really well. I've got my salvias that are doing good too and my budlias. Anyway, this episode has gone a lot longer than I expected it to. That's okay, isn't it? If you're still listening, thank you. As I said, next time I will be talking about if we can put a bit of bush into your backyard. Anyway, until next time, my dears, my dear leaflets. Toodle-oo. Toodle-oo, toodle-oo, toodle-oo, toodle-oo. All media pertaining to this episode will be in the show notes. Please follow through Instagram and we now have a Facebook group. Please remember to rate and review and remember to pull up your plants so we can get dirty. Blop, blop.