Native fruit propagation:
Quite a few native bush tucker plants have been fruiting at the farm over the last couple of months, including Native Peanut Tree (Sterculia quadrifida), Small Leaved Tamarind (Diploglottis campbellii), and Native Tamarind (Diploglottis australis), and we've been propagating these to plant them back throughout our site. All these bush tucker fruit germinated within a few weeks of planting without any pre-treatment, unlike many other natives like Brisbane Wattle (Acacia fimbriata) and Red Ash (Alphitonia excelsa) which requires soaking in boiling water to trigger germination. We've also propagated native Rasberry (Rubus moluccanas) from cuttings from an established plant on site and have done really well. They are currently fruiting and are surprisingly sweet. I even spotted a whipbird sheltering in the raspberry bush at the Farm! Another good reason why you want shrubs and other dense bushes to encourage wildlife.
What's great about collecting seeds from local native plants (ones that are thriving) is that seedlings from these are likely to be better suited to our conditions. Often these are species from dry sclerophyll, wet sclerophyll, and dry rainforest (particularly those that occur along our local waterways). There is something so rewarding about collecting your own native seeds and watching it grow into a fully-grown plant (grass, shrub, vine or tree).
Of course, when you're doing this make sure you have permission from the appropriate landholder, and never do it on national parks unless you have the necessary permits for it!
Another thing to consider is to only take up to 10 percent or less of the seeding material from any plant so that enough is left for animals, and for natural regeneration.
There are lots of good books out there on native plant propagation but one that recently came out is Dunphy et al 2020. Australian Rainforest Seeds: A Guide to Collecting, Processing and Propagation.
This is such an exciting field to get into!
Ko
Farm Manager
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