#16 Tongues in Trees
Drones in the Gardens, Nasturtiums, A Yield of Flowers, Plovers Hunting, Slugs in Europe, Learning about Moths
Welcome to Tongues in Trees number 16!
This week:
Australian Botanic Gardens use Drones to combat Invasive Species
Plant Profile: Nasturtiums
Permaculture: Edible Flowers
Moment of Wonder: Plovers Hunting
Citizen Science: Slug Discovery
Free Reading Link: The Moth Who Flapped her Wings
The Drones are Coming! And They’re … Planting Seeds!
When an invasive species is cleared, the land needs to be revegetated as soon as possible to prevent reinfestation, but this can be difficult in areas with steep slopes or other features that limit accessibility. The Australian Botanic Garden at Mount Annan is working with a new company that has an innovative new technology to solve this problem!
After clearing almost 85% of the African Olive Tree from near inaccessible areas, they are trialling giant drones from startup “Air Seed” with funding from the Australian Research Council.
Step aside seed bombs! Air Seed claims that they can plant up to 40 000 seeds a day and their methods are 80 per cent more cost effective than traditional planting methods as well as 25 times faster.
The drones move in after their smaller sentry drone has mapped the landscape and taken high resolution photographs that allows the software to create an alogrithm that plots the best flight path as well as identifying areas that shouldn’t be planted.
This has numerous applications, particularly in a world where we need reforestation to capture carbon and protect habitats. The drones don’t just plant the trees but can be programmed to plant understorey plants and vines.
Read more here.
Plant Profile: Nutritious Nasturtiums
Nasturtiums are wonderful flowers for your garden and not just because of their cheerful blooms. In an age where flooding causes lettuce shortages, other crops can be substituted and added to salads.
Nasturtiums though have more offerings than most:
Edible leaves and flowers.
Use as a decoy crop for Brassica pests.
The seeds are known as “poor man’s capers” and can be used any way that you use capers.
High levels of vitamin C as well as some vitamin D and A.
Good source of Zinc, Copper and Iron.
Antioxidant properties.
Of course, like anything else, they are best in moderation as studies suggest that too much consumption can be harmful to the digestive system.
Nasturtiums will tolerate most soil types and growing conditions. To get the most from the plant, it needs a sunny position, although it benefits from some shade in tropical and subtropical climates.
In cooler climates they should be planted in Spring and grow as an annual crop. In warmer climates they may last two growing seasons.
Nasturtiums will happily self seed if you leave some of the crop and generally run true to type.
Cultivation has yielded three main types of Nasturtium, cascading, climbing and bush varieties, so it’s easy to find one for any kind of garden from rambling acreage to balconies.
They are also beloved by pollinators. In my garden they are regularly covered in native stingless bees.
If you’d like to read more about this versatile plant, click here.
Flowers for All!
We’re back to principle three this week, which is “Obtain a Yield”. One of my favourite yields is edible flowers. They look wonderful, pollinators tend to love them and they make a wonderful ingredient in the kitchen. I like to grow enough to satisfy the garden inhabitants and my family. That way everyone wins!
Edible flowers are a crop that can be grown in a pot on the kitchen windowsill, on contour banks and in every size garden space in between.
Many edible flowers also have edible leaves as well! If you’re not planting from seed, though, be sure to buy from the edible plant sections of nurseries as edible species grown as ornamentals may have been subject to pesticides that remain in the plant tissue and may be harmful to consumers.
Before eating a plant, make sure that it has been identified correctly and do your own research to ensure edibility!
Here are some edible flowers to get you started:
Violas - many edible species commonly known as Violets or Pansies. Favourite species for flowers and leaves: Viola tricolor, Viola cornuta, Viola oderata
Tropaeolum - commonly known as Nasturtium
Borago - commonly known as Borage, beautiful starflowers that taste like cucumber!
Curcubits - flowers from Pumpkins, Zucchini, Cucumber and Squash
Calendula - these bright orange flowers have edible petals and leaves.
Here’s a YouTube clip of me putting together a salad with edible flowers.
A Hunter in Action
The bird in the graphic above is usually called a “Plover” where I come from, but it’s also known as a “Masked Lapwing”. This is the Northern variety, Vanellus miles miles.
Most encounters are when they are nesting. They take over a section of grass, often in football fields or schools and ferociously defend their territory, squawking and flying at anyone who comes near. They do have spikes on their wings which they can use to attack, but they rarely do.
My moment of wonder this week was a totally different encounter. For the first time I saw them “hunting”. They are primarily insectivores that hunt in grasslands. As they walk, they jiggle a leg. It is actually quite comical!
It never occurred to me that I hadn’t observed them like this before. In fact, I have only ever observed them in defensive mode or running at the sight of humans.
What a wonderful experience to actually observe their behaviour when they are relaxed! I got some video. If you’re interested, click here to watch it.
A New Slug!
There are many benefits to participating in Citizen Science, but one of the less experienced and perhaps more desirable is the discovery of new species!
That discovery seems less likely in more populated regions, but citizen scientists have proved that wrong by discovering a new species in Europe!
In the Tara Canyon the group was traveling on rafts when they discovered the slugs, “as big as a medium-sized carrot”. Initially thought to be Ash-black Keelback Slugs, they have now been confirmed as a different species by DNA sequencing.
How good would it be to discover a new species!? And according to scientists, a lot of the insect world is as yet unclassified…
This week’s Free Read is a throwback to a conversation with my daughter that yielded a new understanding of moths.
Click here to read “The Moth Who Flapped Her Wings”.