Climate Change Flora
GARDENS ON THE MOVE
Global Warming is having the same effect as putting Brisbane on a trailer and slowly dragging it to Townsville. We’ll arrive in that climate around 2030. Planted in 2004, these are some of the 135 different plants growing in my front garden that will cope with the climate change predicted by the CSIRO in their 2003 report “Climate Change: An Australian Guide to the Science and Potential Impacts”
And if you’re planting native trees in Brisbane? Best pop up to Townsville and collect seed from there. It’ll already be adapted to Brisbane’s emerging new climate…
Acalypha reptans ‘Summer Love’
Rough adiantum, Adiantum hispidulum
Aechmea gamosepala ‘Variegata’, makes a useful groundcover in semi-shade.
Aechmea gamosepala ‘Variegata’
Agave mexicana ‘Variegata’. Suckering perennial succulent with fierce spines
Allamanda cathartica, a slightly weedy Venezuelan vine. With vigilance it’s manageable and flowers throughout the warm season
Aloe vera cultivar. Fresh sap is the best way to alleviate sunburn and helps with psoriasis. Every garden should grow some.
Aloe vera – a beautiful, but prickly source of healing sap
Aloe vera. The commonly encountered, dull-looking but freely suckering cultivar. You’ll find this friendlier to handle when harvesting sap. This pot was given to me in 2005. See what happened next…
I’ve propagated it. Since 2007 it’s been filling up Damo’s Aloe vera border, in the nature strip
Alpinia arundelliana, a Brisbane native
Alternanthera ‘Bettzichiana’, a somewhat thirsty legacy of the Victorian bedding plant craze
Ananas bracteatus ‘Variegatus’. Sold as an ornamental, it’s slow to fruit. Fruit the the size of an orange are delicious eating
Ananas bracteatus ‘Variegatus’ looking resentful after transplanting
Ananas comosus ‘Rough’ or ‘Queen’ pineapple. Prickly plants produce sweet, aromatic, flavoursome fruit with cores soft enough to eat
Ananas comosus Accession No: 34-76
Ananas comosus ‘Mareeba Sweet’. Sweet, juicy and reasonable flavoursome, fruit have inedible cores
Ananas comosus ‘Mareeba Sweet’ seem content to fruit only with natural rainfall
Dwarf pineapple, Ananas nanus. Sold as a curiosity, this vicious little perennial likes semi-shade. Produces autumn fruit that are just about edible
Bunya, Araucaria bidwillii. Global Warming? Been there done that. This is the most ancient of living Araucaria species. A five year old seedling, just in view, surviving two years of drought
Aneilema acuminata is a well-behaved native rainforest plant and relative of weedy wandering jew
Aspidistra elatior has slug-pollinated flowers
Aspidistra elatior may be called the Cast Iron plant, but it needs an occasional splash to look lush
Bambusa sp. Murray Island. This native species was removed because it grew too well, even during drought.
Banksia aemula, Wallum Banksia, beloved by bees, but sensitive to ongoing drought.
Billbergia nutans flowers in mid-winter
Brachychiton bidwillii, Little Kurrajong. Cut annually to the ground after flowering is finished to encourage vigorous, decorative foliage
Brachychiton bidwillii in dry shade
Brachychiton rupestris, Queensland Bottle tree. A two year old seed grown specimen, about a year after planting
Brachychiton rupestris, Queensland Bottle tree at five years old
Brachychiton rupestris, Queensland Bottle tree. Watered once, this specimen is three years old and was planted two years ago
Brachychiton rupestris bark
Calliandra heamatocephala, prostrate form, does well in Brisbane kerbside plantings.
Natal Plum, Carissa macrocarpa. Makes an impenetrably prickly hedge or shrub with edible fruit ideal for jams. Removed because it grew so large and fast.