HYDRANGEA

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FENNEL SKY

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FRUITING SEASON

It's fruiting time for many decorative plants in the gardens, and as if to compensate for the relatively fewer flowers, this season brings us a wealth of fruits, nuts and seeds. From left to right: Victorian box (Pittosporum undulatum); Broad-leaf Privet (Ligustrum lucidum); Stinking Iris (Iris foetidissima); Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepsis indica), and Hawthorn haws (Crataegus monogyna).

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SNOW-ON-THE-MOUNTAIN

Euphorbia marginata (commonly known as snow-on-the-mountain, smoke-on-the-prairie, variegated spurge, or whitemargined spurge) is a small annual in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae. It is native to parts of temperate North America, from Eastern Canada to the Southwestern United States. It is naturalized throughout much of China. The type specimen was collected in Rosebud County, Montana from the area of the Yellowstone River by William Clark during the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Snow-on-the-mountain has grey-green leaves along branches and smaller leaves (bracts or cyathophylls) in terminal whorls with edges trimmed with wide white bands, creating, together with the white flowers, the appearance that gives the plant its common names.

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YOUNG & OLD

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DRY & WET

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TREE FERNS

Tree ferns (Dicksonia antarctica) in Melbourne's Botanic Gardens.

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PRIMULA

Primula beesiana, now treated as a subspecies of Primula bulleyana, is one of the species known as candelabra primroses. It is a tall Primula with purple-red flowers. Stems of Primula beesiana grow 50–60 cm high and flower in late spring or early summer. The flowers are fragrant and require diligent watering. Primroses come in many shapes and sizes. The Candelabra group are grown for their colourful display of flowers arranged in tiers or layers on tall, upright stems.

This species features heads of rose-purple flowers with a yellow eye. Foliage is light green, held in a low rosette at ground level. All Candelabra type Primrose prefer a rich soil that is constantly moist, and dislike any hint of summer drought. A stream bank or pond side setting is ideal. Allow plants to self-sow. Will tolerate full sun in cool summer regions.

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WATERY

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AUTUMN HARBINGER

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DILL FLOWERS

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LIFECYCLE

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TROPICAL

While our Winter lingers here in the southern part of Australia, up north in Queensland, the weather is warm and tropical...

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HEMLOCK

Conium maculatum (hemlock or poison hemlock) is a highly poisonous biennial herbaceous flowering plant in the carrot family Apiaceae, native to Europe and North Africa. It is a herbaceous biennial plant that grows to 1.5–2.5 m, with a smooth, green, hollow stem, usually spotted or streaked with red or purple on the lower half of the stem. All parts of the plant are hairless (glabrous).

The leaves are two- to four-pinnate, finely divided and lacy, overall triangular in shape, up to 50 cm long and 40 cm broad. The flowers are small, white, clustered in umbels up to 10–15 cm across. When crushed, the leaves and root emit a rank, unpleasant odour often compared to that of parsnips. It produces a large number of seeds that allow the plant to form thick stands in modified soils. The toxicity of the plant has inspired many of its common names: In addition to the English poison hemlock, the Australian Carrot Fern, and the Irish devil's bread or devil's porridge, poison parsley, spotted corobane, and spotted hemlock are used.

Eight piperidinic alkaloids have been identified in C. maculatum. Two of them, gamma-coniceine and coniine, are generally the most abundant, and they account for most of the plant's acute and chronic toxicity. Due to high potency, the ingestion of seemingly small doses can easily result in respiratory collapse and death. Coniine causes death by blocking the neuromuscular junction in a manner similar to curare; this results in an ascending muscular paralysis with eventual paralysis of the respiratory muscles which results in death due to lack of oxygen to the heart and brain. Death can be prevented by artificial ventilation until the effects have worn off 48–72 hours later. For an adult, the ingestion of more than 100 mg (0.1 gram) of coniine (about six to eight fresh leaves, or a smaller dose of the seeds or root) may be fatal.

In ancient Greece, hemlock was used to poison condemned prisoners. The most famous victim of hemlock poisoning is the philosopher Socrates. After being condemned to death for impiety and corrupting the young men of Athens, in 399 BC, Socrates was given a potent infusion of the hemlock plant. Plato described Socrates' death in 'Phaedo'.

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The Death of Socrates (French: La Mort de Socrate) is an oil on canvas painted by French painter Jacques-Louis David in 1787. The painting focuses on a classical subject like many of his works from that decade, in this case the story of the execution of Socrates as told by Plato in his Phaedo. In this episode, Socrates has been convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens and introducing strange gods, and has been sentenced to die by drinking poison hemlock. Socrates uses his death as a final lesson for his pupils rather than fleeing when the opportunity arises, and faces it calmly

GERANIUM

Wild geranium (probably Geranium sanguineum) growing in the Darebin Parklands.

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EVERGREEN

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KEYS 4

A samara (/səˈmɑːrə/, UK also: /ˈsæmər-/) is a winged achene, a type of fruit in which a flattened wing of fibrous, papery tissue develops from the ovary wall. A samara is a simple dry fruit and indehiscent (not opening along a seam). The shape of a samara enables the wind to carry the seed farther away than regular seeds from the parent tree, and is thus a form of anemochory. In some cases the seed is in the centre of the wing, as in the elms (genus Ulmus), the hoptree (Ptelea trifoliata), and the bushwillows (genus Combretum). In other cases the seed is on one side, with the wing extending to the other side, making the seed autorotate as it falls, as in the maples (genus Acer) and ash trees (genus Fraxinus).

A samara is sometimes called a key and is often referred to as a wingnut, helicopter or whirlybird, whirligig, polynose, or, in the north of England, a spinning jenny. During the autumn months, they are a popular source of amusement for children who enjoy tossing them in the air and watching them spin to the ground. Some species that normally produce paired samaras, such as Acer pseudoplatanus, also produce them in groups of 3 or 4.

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NATURE NOTES

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COSTMARY

Tanacetum balsamita is a perennial temperate herb in the Asteraceae family known as costmary, alecost, balsam herb, bible leaf, or mint geranium. Costmary is a perennial herb with large, oval serrated leaves and can grow up to 2 m high. During Summer it develops small yellow, button-shaped blossoms which appear in clusters.

The English name costmary stems from “costus of Saint Mary”. Costus is another herb (Saussurea lappa), and by extension ‘costus’ used to refer to any aromatic herb or its root. In other languages, costmary is associated with the Virgin Mary, most probably because it is sometimes used to treat women’s diseases.The plant seems to have originated in the Mediterranean. It is unclear whether the plant called balsamita described by Columella in 70 CE is the same. According to Heinrich Marzell, it was first mentioned in 812 CE in a plant catalogue.

Costmary was widely grown since the medieval times in herb gardens until the late 19th and early 20th centuries for medical purposes. Nowadays it has mostly disappeared in Europe, but is still widely used in southwest Asia. Its broad leaves were pressed and used in medieval times as a place marker in Bibles. It is referred to by Nicholas Culpeper as the ‘balsam herb’.

Stiff, leafy stalks of costmary rise from spreading rhizomes. The upward-pointing, silvery-haired, pale-green leaves with fine, rounded teeth may measure as large as 30 by 5 cm. Lower leaves are stalked and large, the upper ones stalk-less and become progressively smaller. The flowers, in clusters of tiny yellow buttons at the top of 1 m stalks, bloom in very late summer in northern climates, not at all if plants are grown in shade.

Plants whose flowers have small white ray flowers (like daisies) used to be classified as C. balsamita, whereas those with no ray flowers (just yellow disk flowers like those of tansy) were assigned to C. var. tanacetoides (which means “like tansy”). Gertrude B. Foster, in Herbs for Every Garden (1966), noted that the former has a camphor scent and the latter a mint scent.

For culinary uses, the mint-scented herb is usually employed. Use sparingly as the spearmint flavour can overpower your dishes or drinks. For a subtle flavour, slightly spicy, add a few young leaves finely chopped, to salads, vegetables, young potatoes, carrot and pumpkin soup, fruit cake, game, poultry and cold meats. Add 2 leaves to a pot of stewing apples, pears and quinces. Add 1 tsp of finely chopped costmary to whipped cream and custard served with desserts. Brew as a tisane or add it to sage tea.

Leaves of the plant have been found to contain a range of essential oils. A Spanish study found the oil includes carvone as the main component (51.5%, 41.0% and 56.9% in three samples), together with minor amounts of beta-thujone, t-dihydrocarvone, c-dihydrocarvone, dihydrocarveol isomer, c-carveol, and t-carveol. Levels of beta-thujone, a toxic ketone, were 9.8%, 12.5% and 12.1% in the respective samples.

In medieval times, costmary was used for menstruation problems. In the 18th century, it was classified as laxative, against stomach problems and as astringent. It was recommended against melancholy and hysteria as well as dysentery and against gallbladder disease. The plant is known from ancient herbals and was widely grown in Elizabethan knot gardens.

In the language of flowers, costmary leaves or leaf clusters signify: “You are sweet” or “Sweetness”. A flowering stalk indicates “mild temper and fidelity”.

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RELIC

After we are long gone, green will prevail...

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