South African Weed Orchid (Disa bracteata), not the orchid you want to find on your bush walks but increasingly prevalent across southern Australia. Endemic to … Read the full post
One-leaf Cape Tulip (Moraea flaccida)
One-leaf Cape Tulip (Moraea flaccida), another South African bulb more extensive in Australia than its home province. Just when One-leaf Tulip joined the two-leafed Moraea … Read the full post
Small-flowered Onion Grass (Romulea minutiflora)
Small-flowered Onion Grass (Romulea minutiflora), a minuscule cousin of the standard saccharine Onion Grass (R. rosea). Also originating in South Africa, the Small-flowered Onion Grass … Read the full post
Onion Grass (Romulea rosea)
Onion Grass (Romulea rosea), the ubiquitous magenta stars that adorn Melbourne’s springtime lawns. Onion Grass is a plant that requires many more than 2200 characters, … Read the full post
Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria aurea)
Peruvian Lily (Alstroemeria aurea), one of a group of tuberous flowering plants native to South America which have been widely adopted into horticulture and floriculture … Read the full post
Italian Arum Lily (Arum italicum)
Italian Arum Lily (Arum italicum), known to past generations as the ‘Cuckoo-pint’, a green-flowering Mediterranean bulb of deep shade, and minor relative of the ubiquitous … Read the full post
Two-leaf Cape Tulip (Moraea miniata)
Two-leaf Cape Tulip (Moraea miniata), one of several South African species of the genus established in Australia and nowhere else in the world. Imported alongside … Read the full post
‘Peruvian’ Squill (Scilla peruviana)
‘Peruvian’ Squill (Scilla peruviana), a perennial bulb of the western Mediterranean that has formed adventive, self-sustaining colonies when left to its own devices in southeastern … Read the full post
Thread Iris (Moraea setifolia)
Thread Iris (Moraea setifolia), a minute South African perennial naturalised across dry interior regions of southern Australia. In Australia, the plant was first collected in … Read the full post
Arum Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica)
Arum Lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica), favoured Southern African cut flower and damaging invader of drainages, riparian edges and boggy landscapes. Not a lily at all, Arum … Read the full post
Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum)
Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum), a familiar house plant that spreads adventitiously in urban environments and natural areas when irresponsibly discarded. Originating in tropical and southern … Read the full post
Fragrant False-garlic (Nothoscordum borbonicum)
Fragrant False-garlic (Nothoscordum borbonicum), making its annual appearance this month at front fences across the metropolitan. Although an occasional pasture weed in Victoria’s north and … Read the full post
Water Spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis)
Water Spiderwort (Tradescantia fluminensis), a notorious colonist of Melbourne’s creeklines and river valleys. Still known popularly in some quarters as Wandering Jew (also Wandering Trad, … Read the full post
Pregnant Onion (Albuca bracteata)
Pregnant Onion (Albuca bracteata) on a sandstone railway cutting. Like so many of Melbourne’s weeds, the plant is native to South Africa. However, excepting a … Read the full post
Soap Aloe (Aloe maculata)
Soap Aloe (Aloe maculata), established across approximately 50 metres of railway embankment at Spring Street. From the beginning, aloes and other succulents were made a … Read the full post
Freesia (Freesia leichtlinii x.)
Freesia (Freesia leichtlinii x.), South African-origin crocoids that occasionally find favour as spreading spring bulbs in Melbourne cottage gardens. Descendants of horticultural hybrids, they are … Read the full post
Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica)
Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica), in this instance resembling the cultivar ‘Excelsior’. Famous as a horticultural armada that has jeopardised the future of England’s native bluebell … Read the full post
Angled Onion (Allium triquetrum)
Angled Onion (Allium triquetrum), a noxious weed and riparian invader, and a plant that surprisingly does not seem to have a record in Australia prior … Read the full post
Onion Weed (Asphodelus fistulosus)
Onion Weed (Asphodelus fistulosus), a noxious weed of Victoria’s northwest cereal growers and other similar areas of Australia, but a plant that is also present … Read the full post
Bunchflower Daffodil (Narcissus tazetta ssp. aureus)
Bunchflower Daffodil (Narcissus tazetta ssp. aureus) on the east bank of Gardiner’s Creek. The fully golden Jonquil is a product of the western Mediterranean (Italy, … Read the full post
Bunchflower Daffodil (Narcissus tazetta ssp. tazetta)
Bunchflower Daffodil (Narcissus tazetta ssp. tazetta) on the Yarra flood bank in Abbotsford. The pure white-flowering tazetta subspecies of Jonquil is found across the Mediterranean … Read the full post