Field Trip to ‘Yina’
Field Trip to ‘Yina’
On a glorious September day, an enthusiastic group of students and researchers from the ARC Uniquely Australian Food training centre travelled to Mt Cotton to learn more about Indigenous Australian plants. Sophie Ader and her husband Xavier graciously welcomed us to their property ‘Yina’. It is a wonderful place to discover a variety of medicinal and edible native plants in their natural habitat with approximately 70% of the property being native bush.
Dr Andrew Pengelly, President of the Indigenous Plants for Health Association, generously shared his extensive knowledge of native plants with the group, teaching us how to identify different plants and highlighting their uses.
Amongst those he spoke about were:
| Finger lime | Citrus australis | Rutaceae | |||||
| Native hibiscus | Hibiscus heterophylla | Malvaceae | |||||
| Kangaroo Grass | Themeda triandra | Poaceae | |||||
| Dianella | Dianella sp. | Phormiaceae | |||||
| Midgim berry | Austromyrtus dulcis | Myrtaceae | |||||
| lemon myrtle | Backhousia citriodora | Myrtaceae | |||||
| cinnamon myrtle | Backhousia myrtifolia | Myrtaceae | |||||
| hop bush (sticky) | Dodonaea viscosa | Sapindaceae | |||||
| Soap tree | Alphitonia excelsa | Rhamnaceae | |||||
| Wombat berry | Eutrephus latifolius | Laxmannaceae | |||||
| Davidson’s plum | Davidsonia pruriens | Cunoniaceae | |||||
| Native Apricot / gumby gumby | Pittosporum angustifolium | Pittosporaceae | |||||
| native elderberry | Sambucus australasica | Adoxaceae | |||||
| Warrigal Greens | Tetragonia tetragona | Aizoaceae | |||||
| Old man saltbush | Atriplex mummularia | Amaranthaceae | |||||
| Pigface | Carbobrotus glaucescens | Aizoaceae | |||||
| Native sea celery | Apium prostatum | Apiaceae | |||||
| Lilly pilly | Syzygium spp. | Myrtaceae | |||||
| Native rasberries (atheron Rasberries) | Rubus spp. | Rosaceae | |||||
| Geebung | Persoonia Stradbrokensis sp. | ||||||
Sophie and Xavier are also passionate about permaculture and around 30% of their property is used to grow a range of native and exotic medicinal and edible plants, with a total of 130 different identified species. There were so many delicious treats around every bend and we enjoyed the mulberries and native raspberries and all went home with some lemons. Some of the lemons and herbs were incorporated into delicious dishes for our team lunch the next day.
Sophie and Xavier demonstrated their flame throwing skills used to release Banksia seeds for propagation, which PhD Candidate Gaya will grow at her home.
During the heat of the day we enjoyed a walk to a meandering waterway with welcome breezes and beautiful shady trees. The diverse habitats are home for some native Australian animals such as fish, eels, turtles, echidnas, bandicoots, koalas, wallabies, goannas, snakes and birds. For many the highlight of the trip was visiting with the magnificent Tallow wood Grandmother tree, aged between 350 and 500 years.
With our new found knowledge of different edible and medicinal native plants, the team now want to identify, label and profile those plants and hidden treasures in the bushland surrounding our new facility on UQ’s Long Pocket Campus. We are also considering an overnight field visit at Dr Pengelly’s home near Stanthorpe, to learn about different types of Australian native species.