[PBS] Crinum versus the bulldozers........

steven hart hartsentwine.australia@gmail.com
Sun, 04 Sep 2011 17:41:35 PDT
This little story is for the crinum lovers out there.......

My first ever crinums were saved from a giant dam site when i was
young........The Wivenhoe dam, In South East QLD near my home, covered 28km
of the upper, fresh water, dry forest reaches of the Brisbane
River... Its three times the size of Sydney Harbour...

The sandy loam banks were a treasure trove of native crinums, " White"
Crinum Flaccidum mostly & C Venosum very small hidden pockets. My original
Flaccidum & one Venosum came from being riped from the ground by bulldozers,
I used to ride horses & motorcycles through the area some weekends & always
loved their pretty 60cm tall highly fragrant flowers & their unusual snaking
growth habit. , I didn't even know what a crinum was back then... But i
liked the way they grew & couldn't stand to watch them all trying to grow
while they baked in the sun, so i decided to save some before they
disappeared forever once the dam was flooded...

What a wonderful decision i made that day....I panted as many as i possibly
could on higher ground where the flooding wouldn't reach & i stuffed
a couple of small bulbs down my motorcycle pants & started my crinum
collection on the same day......

All the bulldozed forest, crinums and all were crushed into trucks by
excavators & removed forever & nobody made any other effort to replant a
single bulb but me.....Many of the ones i tried to replant in the bush
struggled through several years of sporadic drought winter conditions but
some survived, seeded into small groups & i occasionally i see a flower when
i visit the area which is so fulfilling, & those first 2 bulbs i stuffed
down my motorbike pants, hoping to find out what they were one day, survived
& have regenerated into a small happy population at home & i have even
placed some seeds back into the wild too to make up for the two originals
that have given me joy year after year.......I'll post some photos on the
wicki soon, if anyones interested, I just haven't had time to step myself
through it yet....

I only know of two other local places where very small groups grow in the
wild, as little as 15 plants in family groups, although their range is
fairly large, along the east coast of Qld to North NSW they are rarely seen.

Steven QLD Australia


On Sun, Sep 4, 2011 at 6:29 AM, Alberto Castillo
<ezeizabotgard@hotmail.com>wrote:

>
> > Hi Alberto, I cant imagine how anyone could justify taking something so
> > beautiful from its native environment,
>



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