By Clive Larkman
The essential oil market is huge and growing rapidly, with an expected value of $US10 billion by 2025. Some reports are even predicting that it could be in excess of $US20 billion by 2027. This increase has its roots in a range of reasons, one of which is COVID-19, but overall, the whole sector is expanding.… Continue reading
Read MoreLabel: Brachychiton ‘Griffith Pink’
ACRA Registration 268 (October 1986)
Family: Malvaceae
Origin: Brachychiton ‘Griffith Pink’ is a hybrid between B. discolor and B. populneus. It is thought that this cultivar originated in the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area. The actual place of origin of this cultivar is obscure, as checking with herbaria in Queensland and NSW revealed a collection at Condong, NSW (near Tweed River) on alluvial flats.… Continue reading
Read MoreLabel: Chamelaucium uncinatum ‘University’
ACRA Registration 143 (November 1982)
Family: Myrtaceae
Origin: Chamelaucium uncinatum ‘University’ is a form of Chamelaucium uncinatum originally selected from plants growing at the University of Western Australia by the late Oliver J Dowell. It has been grown commonly in cultivation since the early 1960’s.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Peter Byron
The Ian Potter National Conservatory (Conservatory) is the first major development from the Australian National Botanic Gardens’ (ANBG) 20-year Master Plan, announced by the Australian Government in June 2015. The Conservatory will be a national and international showcase of some of Australia’s most beautiful and unusual tropical native flora.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Bruce Thompson
Common Name: Native Mulberry, White Nettle, False Stinger, Queensland Grass-Cloth Plant, Koomeroo-Koomeroo, Kongangn, Thil-la-wo
Genus: Pipturus
Species: argenteus
Family: Urticaceae
Origin: Occurs in coastal range lowland rainforests, on the edges of riverine communities and regrowth with occasional inundation, damp gullies and coral cays from Lismore to Papua New Guinea.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Clive Larkman
2021 and it seems we are living in a crazy world. Without looking at COVID-19 and its maddening repercussions, we need only to look at the ever-evolving world of medicine, herbs and therapies to really be confused.
On the positive side, there is a greater acceptance of non-traditional Western therapies, however, an understanding is far from simple.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy John Sandham
In the British summer of 1829, while undertaking the collection of a moth pupa into a sealed glass vial, Dr Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868) observed that fern spores and grass seed, captured within the closed environment, could germinate and grow without any outside assistance.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Clive Larkman –
I have written about a number of herbs over the years, some of which have a narrow range and only a few species. These include lavender and rosemary (now salvia) which come from the countries on the northern side of the Mediterranean.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Bruce Thompson –
Common Name: Blue Tongue, Native Lasiandra, Indian Rhododendron, Malabar Rhododendron, Singapore Rhododendron
Genus: Melastoma
Species: malabrathicum subsp. malabrathicum
Family: Melostomaceae
Origin: A pan-tropical species occurring in open forest and disturbed rainforest in north Queensland, down to Kempsey in New South Wales, the Kimberley region in Western Australia, the Northern Territory as well as Indomalaya and Japan.… Continue reading
Read MoreBy Dale Arvidsson –
Long before today’s online world created an insatiable desire for exotic and unusual indoor plants, pteridomania, a Victorian craze between the 1840s and 1890s, saw the desire to collect ferns in Britain and its colonies. Glass houses, conservatories and ‘stumparies’, naturalistic displays of felled trees and exposed roots often shrouded by hardy ferns, allowed the wealthy insatiable collectors to display ferns collected from around the globe.… Continue reading
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