Honestly, can you pick and name the native Australian flora in this photo?
When you go down to your local market, how often do you stop and consider native flora?
We really should do so more often, because more often than not there is a story behind where these native beauties have come from.
Take, for example, this divine lunar-like seed pod nested in the steel blue bowl. I bought it from my favourite florist at the Prahran Market, but there were no signs as to what it was, I wasn’t even sure if they were for sale! Upon asking the florist he explained they were seed pods from the Northern Territory and the contents of the seed were an edible favourite of Indigenous communities up North. How often do we buy flowers that come from their place of origin? The answer is basically, never.
The seed pod belongs to Australia’s only Boab tree the Adansonia gregorii or godawon as known by many indigenous Australians. It’s only found in the Kimberley Region and of course the Northern Territory. Apart from being a food source, the seed pod shells also become the basis for carvings and decoratives paintings; no element of the pod seemingly going to waste.
I also snagged another seed pod, still attached to its wood branch. I think it may have been burnt slightly in a bushfire, it’s outer husk seems rather blackened, rather ironic considering its name is the Banksia Menziesii or the Firewood Banksia.
When I lived in England last year and felt so removed from what I thought of Australia, I began to appreciate things I never had before. I missed all the native flora and fauna (the birdsong in the morning in particular) that had somehow subconsciously taken up residence in the depths of my memories of home. I missed how incredibly unique and rare our plants, trees, flowers and animals really are and became rather proud of our special unique environment.
We as an Australian people travel the width and breadth of the earth to learn and absorb and soak in the cultures of the rest of the world. We try and ‘keep up’ with the rest of the world. But in actual fact, we already have a story to tell, its been here for millions of years. All the problems we could imagine to solve in the world are in our own backyard. Our stories start at home, and over time we lose it.
I think for those of us who live in the cities, we sometimes feel a disconnect with rural and outback areas of Australia. The story of Australia is fracturing and diverging at a great rate and along so many different lines, but there is and will always be one place that will bring us back all together and that is the flora and fauna of this unique country.
And this is what these bits of flora do for me, they remind me of the importance of nature in my life. They remind me of the unique signature our ecology has in the world. They remind me of how beautifully rich and rare this country really is.
