BOUQUET DELIVERIES

On the road from Narocoorte to Mt Gambier

Xanthorrhoea (Black Boy) is a genus of flowering plants native to Australia and a

member of family Xanthorrhoeaceae, being the only member of subfamily

Xanthorrhoeoideae. The Xanthorrhoeaceae are monocots, part of order Asparagales.

There are 28 species and five subspecies of Xanthorrhoea


There is no doubt that Xanthorrhoea grow very slowly. However, this is often

generalized to mean they all grow at the rate of about an inch (2? cm) per year. In

actuality, after the initial establishment phase, the rate of growth varies widely

from species to species. Thus, while a five-metre tall member of the fastest growing

Xanthorrhoea may be 200 years old, a member of a more slowly-growing species of equal

height may have aged to 600 years.

Xanthorrhoea may be cultivated, as seed is easily collected and germinated. While

they do grow slowly, quite attractive plants with short trunks (10 cm) and leaf

crowns up to 1.5 m (to the top of the leaves) can be achieved in 10 years. The slow

growth rate means that it can take 30 years to achieve a specimen with a significant

trunk.

Commonly called grass trees, Xanthorrhoea plants are also known as balga grass to the

Australian aborigines, which is their word for black boy. The Aborigines probably

called these plants balga because after a wild fire, the bottom leaves burn away

revealing a singed black trunk with long green reed like leaves extending from the

top of the trunk giving the appearance of child like black figures.
Australian Aborigines collected the resin flakes from around the base of the stalk,

heated them, and rolled the resulting substance into balls. The resin would later be

reheated and used to glue stone flakes to wooden spear shafts or woomeras, and to

join and repair various broken implements.

Aborigines lit fires by rubbing two pieces of the dry flower stalk together, soaked

the flower spikes in water to make a sweet fresh or slightly fermented drink, and

used the tough seed pods as knives to cut meat or harvest insect larvae from inside

the old flower stalks and the dead bases.


European settlers harvested the resinous gum to make varnishes and lacquers. During

World War II many cans of tinned food sent to the Australian troops in the Pacific

had a protective coat of grass tree varnish to keep the containers from rusting.

The spikes are packed with strongly scented flowers and attract a wide variety of

insect, bird, and mammal pollinators.

Canon EOS 5D, 70-200 EF L series

2011

_9876_7_8_

In his marvellous poem 'On Nature', Lucretius observes that when you enter a dark place like a barn you often see dust particles 'dancing in the sunlight'. This 'dance' is akin to what today in physics is called Brownian Movement. It's named after the great Scottish botanist and explorer Robert Brown (1773-1853). He was an ardent user of the microscope and had observed similar 'movement' within grains of pollen. But Brown was far more than a laboratory man. He had been earlier an avid explorer.
Brown travelled to Australia on HMS Investigator under captain Matthew Flinders (1774-1814) in 1801. They had circumnavigated that continent, and Brown collected around 3500 plant specimens of which some 2000 were until then unknown to Europe. One of these plants was this Scaevola aemula, Fairy Fan Flower.
It's obvious why it's called a Fairy Fan. The Latin name is clear, too, for the readers of Livy's 'Ab Urbe Condita'. In Book II of that work, Livy tells the story of courageous Gaius Mucius. The young man attempted to assassinate Lars Porsenna, the tyrant king. He got the wrong guy, and was captured. Brought before the king, he was threatened with being roasted alive if he didn't divulge the details of the plot. Mucius then put into the fire his right hand until it whithered to demonstrate he would say nothing... Impressed by his courage, Porsenna sent him back to Rome, and he became Livy's left-handed (=Scaevola) hero.
Our flower was named 'Scaevola' because of it's curious 'half-way' - "left-handed" - look: Emulating or Imitating Scaevola.
At the pretty castle gardens on the outskirts of Arcen on the right-hand banks of the Meuse River in Limburg, the Netherlands, the already low Autumn Sun was brilliant but the garden dappled in shadow. In the rays penetrating the almost Falling Leaves, our Fairy Fans danced above the water...

<< Arhiva >>