Flora of The (North Queensland) ‘Ville – IV
Preamble
I once heard a local on a Spanish bus proclaim, as we topped a hill, and Barcelona in all its then hundred square miles and three-and-a-half million inhabitants spread out before us, “Es mi pueblo!” My local town is no competition, but it is my “village,” my pueblo, even if tone-deaf founders endowed it with the clanking name of “Townsville,” which I more often shorten to The Ville. This is a series of (brief) blogs about some flora you may chance upon in the The Ville during a calendar year
In my capacious state, “The Ville” lies far north of the state capital, Brisbane, and still well north of Capricorn, the official tropical zone marker, but though it’s now abundantly endowed with palms, The Ville sports no tropical rainforests or overflowing waterfalls. In fact, The Ville belongs in the category of Dry Tropics – that is, its rainfall is a long way from the heavy average needed to naturally support such delights.
Nevertheless, The Ville does have an abundance of flora, native or imported and most months show some of them off to advantage. Note: For The Ville, the traditional four-season year cycle is not only inverted, at least if you live in the northern hemisphere, but also sways in and out of sync with the native seasonal cycle. And that has only two parts, the Dry, and the Wet. The Wet runs optionally from November to February, the Dry has the rest.
Marching on – March
]We are now officially in autumn, but still in possible cyclone season and rain continues, quote heavy at times. However, St. Paddy’s Day in Ireland was traditionally warm enough for seeds to grow, while in The Ville it’s cool enough for garden staples such as lettuce and tomatoes, and gardeners are revving up. Everything already grown is wildly green and luxurious, but the flowering frenzy of September-November is past. Instead there are long-term flowering plants, two of them immigrants to The Ville
First up are two plants in my own yard, both at least 27 years old, since they were here when I moved in. They have never been fertilized, had pest trouble, needed replanting, pruning or even watering, and as a bonus they flower cheerfully all year round.
The common local name is Vinca, though the specific name is Madagascar Periwinkle. In fact, they are so tough that in The Ville the University has declared them a weed, but for gardeners sans Real Green Thumbs, like me, they remain a grateful boon, as The Plant You Just Can’t Kill.
Second is a plant I only found last weekend.
One of several names is the White Buttercup. Like the Vinca, it flowers profusely and apparently without much attention – this plant had flourished over the Wet, and filled its footpath corner. It has pest classification in some places, apparently, so I am not about to import it to my yard, but on Sunday it was a fine sight.
March’s native representative is the Pandanus tree, found in tropical NQ in any relatively watery area, such as, in the local park/botanical garden, near the resident creek. This one displays the species root formation, probably developed for soft ground.
The next lot are probably botanical imports. Pandanus commonly grow in groups, and on the left are green nut-clusters, whose contents will later litter the ground. Here, that is. To the local First Nations, Pandanus were a very important food source. The white part of new leaves was edible, and the nuts are eaten raw or cooked, while the long spiky leaves were vital for basket making.
These are very much au naturel, but in the newer Ville suburbs, they flourish as garden features. These are two along the same street. I have no idea if the owners use the nuts, but they would certainly be a fine food source, in the case of an actual Apocalypse.
