Grass trees and a cycad

[Walter John]

Hi folks, I'm back from a marvelous 2 week holiday to Sth Western Australia where grass trees, massive timber trees, kangaroos and a cycad species are quite prevalent in the area.

Usually where there was the lone Western Australian cycad (Macrozamia riedlei) growing in habitat, you would find an Xanthorrhoea preissii grass tree and/or a Kingia australis grass tree. Kingias have a completely different flower stalk as you will see so whilst they are related to the big X, they are in fact of a different genus. Instead of one flower stalk like spear, Kingias have an array of pompom like flower balls on a stick. Whilst these guys may not be considered a tropical looking plant, I could not show the cycad without the grass trees, they co existed quite happily.

Here's a few pics.

[Tassie_Troy1971]

Ahh nice shots Wal

Grass trees are somthing i have always liked but painfully slow to cultivate (start one in high school )

Did you catch up with Tyrone while out west ??

Troy

[Walter John]

Ahh nice shots Wal

Grass trees are somthing i have always liked but painfully slow to cultivate (start one in high school )

Did you catch up with Tyrone while out west ??

Troy

Thanks Troy, we arrive at the Perth airport after a 5 hour plane trip from BrisVegas one minute and get whisked away about 3 hours drive south to the Margaret River district where we stayed in a place called Quindalup. Aside from Syagrus roms and Phoenix canariensis, not much palms to talk of down there. I'll catch up with Tyronne when we drive there some time down the track.

Here's a grass tree that looks like it's variegated..

[LJG]

That third pic is really somehing else. It must be a few centuries old.

[Ken Johnson]

I learn something new all the time here. Thanks Wal!

[Walter John]

Thanks Len and Ken for taking a look, here's another 2 pics which show that at some stages this Macrozamia cycad has a real blue shade in the leaves, almost as if there are two variations of the same plant, what do the cycad experts think ?

[JEFF from Trabuco Canyon CA]

Some great pictures Wal! Thanks for sharing with us.

Jeff

[aussiearoids]

Mighty fine pix Wal , and thanks for heads up , never knew about the different types of Grass trees .

[Walter John]

Thanks Jeff and Michael, here's a few more, these were actually on my sister in laws property..I fell in love with these plants, quite exciting for me whilst Chris our host was so blase about them because they were everywhere.

This one at a local winery

[BS Man about Palms]

Splendid trip pics... more?

[daxin]

Thank you for the nice habitat-like photos. I've been fascinated by Kingia australis ever since I saw a photo in a book called Botanica. Some botanists now split it into its own family Dasypogonaceae from Xanthorrhoeaceae. Here in California, Xanthorrhoea preissii is available from specialty nurseries and blooming specimens can be seen at botanical gardens, but I have not seen Kingia yet. There is an Australian Native Plants Nursery in Ojai, California and they had Kingia seeds for sale a few years ago. I got a packet but the seeds looked like chopped up grains with lots of chaff. The bits and pieces are so random in size and shape that I did not know if there is even any real seeds in there, and sure enough, nothing came up eventually. For your sister-in-law, maybe she can try one Dasylirion longissimum, the Mexican Grass Tree, to complete her collection. Hopefully a foreign plant with a familiar look will make her appreciate the local botanical treasures in her possession.

[redant]

cool picture, love the Macrozamia riedlei

[Mr Cycad]

Great photos, Wal. I really do enjoying seeing habitat pics like that. Looks like you had fun! Good stuff.

[Tyrone]

Great pictures Wal.

What you have observed about the Macrozamia growing with Xanthorea and Kingia is something I've wondered about too. They always seem to be within close proximity to each other. Even to the north near Cervantes and Enneaba the type locality of the trunking form Macrozamia fraseri, (M sp Eneabba) they grow with Xanthoreas. Once you get to Dongara, only a few kms up the road, both species stop, and if you're circumnavigating the country by road you will not see a Macrozamia or Xanthorea again until Queensland. It's a water thing I think. Even the Macozamias in these more northern areas only grow in valleys and little streams that only flow in strong downpours. On the hill crests you get neither Xanthorea or Macrozamia.

To locals, the Xanthorea and Kingia are really taken for granted. Most people don't realise how old they are. There's a company in Perth (Grass Trees Australia) which relocate Xanthoreas, Kingias and Macrozamias from new developments and after bagging them up and getting them going again on sells them to landscapers and the like. They have fields of them. So it's good to know that someone values them and saves these ancient plants from the fire. In the past farmers would pour kerosene on the Macrozamias so that they'd die and not poison stock.

The many variables you see with these Macrozamias has puzzled cycad people here in the west. You can get nice regular leaflet green ones, then regular leaflet blue ones, then totally irregular messy leaflet ones in blue or green all growing in the same area in the same conditions. Must be a lot of genetic variation just in one lot of seed from the one cone. I know that emus and kangaroos love the seeds and are the dispersal agents for them. A bit like Cassowaries with palms and cycads in the Daintree etc. They're fascinating plants really.

Tyrone