A is for Academia, B is for Bigotry, C is for Country & D is for Democracy
The long awaited TinT paper is finally published & Im hoping you can access it by just clicking on the link below – I cant seem to get links to work on my blog – *sigh* -but will try again:
BT23053Unusual, human-mediated prevalence of epiphytes in semi-arid New South Wales, Australia J. L. Silcock , J. Pye, A. Tighe, P. Reid-Loynes, R. Ashby and R. J. Fairfax
Hopefully something will come of this paper as Jen has put a lot of time into getting our data/words collated, edited & analysed. Im not holding my breath as Ive had no inquiries, no requests for info or pics and no visits from researchers re TinTs yet. European & American academics are captivated by the idea of the ancestors’ growing trees in other trees but the descendants of those ancestors here are not yet on-board. I don’t know how to promote the TinTs – Im a farmer not a publicist. Neither the Dharriwaa Elders group & the Walgett Aboriginal Land Council have been in contact about the TinTs. Speaking of the WALC, I was the Polling Place Manager in Walgett last weekend for the NSW Aboriginal Land Council elections. I was pretty hopeless in the role but luckily my 2 EOs (Electoral assistants) knew what they were doing – a teacher at the Community college & very learned Lightning ridge local, Katharina Zimmer. Interestingly there were NO INFORMAL votes when they counted at the end of the day. Voting was not compulsory so those who did turn up made sure their votes counted. A big win for grass roots democracy, but a big lose for the small brown snake who was passing Anne Dennis’ campaign tent on the way to cast it’s vote …
(Jenny & Joy scrutineering at the ALC elections)
Another matter of interest the last few weeks has been emails from Prof. David Watson, a mistletoe expert from C.S.U Wagga. I love academics who reply & give valuable information in their areas of expertise – Paul Forster (wilgas) – Jonathon Palmer (tree age) – Bill Gammage (Indig. History/ecology) – Ian Baird (root parasites) – Boyd Wright (arid zone veg & fire) – Steven Hopper (ethnobotany) – Frantisek Baluska (plant/root signalling) probably missed some – sorry. Not incl. Jen Silcock & Russell Fairfax of course, who have wide ranging knowledge on rangeland eucalypts & semi-arid zone veg in general. Anyone working in the biological sciences uses a European system of nomenclature ie classifying all living things into different collections of phylum, class, order, family, genus, species etc. In pre-settlement Australia trees were either male or female and part of one’s totem groups. The Linnaean system creates a hierarchy of plants and groups them according to their characteristics and what they do for a living. So when a tiny rogue rosewood (bonnery – Alectryon oleifolius) is growing in big old coolabah for example (below) it is classified as an accidental epiphyte. An epiphyte is different than a parasite as it only uses the host for support and lives off the soil-holding crotches available in many older trees. What if this rogue rosewood is siphoning off nourishment from the host tree via its own roots or the connections made between mycorrhizal fungi? Would it no longer be classified as an epiphyte but rather a facultative stem hemiparasite? Now since old eucalypts are often filled with soil & termite/ ant poop etc, its easy to see how the TinTs have enough organic matter to grow (the question of whether they would have enough moisture we will leave aside for now) BUT when a rosewood grows to maturity in a solid host like this Ironwood (Acacia excelsa) below, you have to ask yourself – HOW? I think the rosewood has tapped into the vascular system of the ironwood & ended up killing its host. With a little help from it’s friends of course …the old clever people!
Rosewood growing in a dead (solid, hard timber) ironwood
Dr David Watson (Dave) says … “Just to be clear, there’s a relatively discrete and well-defined group of plants capable of establishing vascular connections with other species…. Within Australia, there are many families with parasitic taxa, but all the woody plants known to be parasitic are within the Santalales.” Now the rosewood is not part of the Santalales but rather the Sapindaceae family, which don’t show parasitic traits. Parasites have specialized structures called haustoria that penetrate the bark to let them tap into their hosts. Ever since Ive seen 2 mirrii trees here (Exocarpus aphyllus) growing not as root parasites as they are supposed to but LIVING INSIDE a live box & a dead coolabah, Ive been a bit wary of European nomenclature. Plants continue to grow new organs (organogenesis) throughout their lives so they are more adaptive to environmental change than animals despite the fact their movement is limited. To complicate the whole scenario we also have epiparasites… Epiparasites are small group of plants that are both epiphytes and parasites. They may start off as epiphytes ie growing on trees but not bludging on them then develop haustoria to extract water & food as they mature. Mistletoe that are parasites on other mistletoe are epiparasites. Lysiana subfalcata for example is an obligate parasite but a facultive epiparasite. Ive read that haustoria can have extremely varied structures & the interface between the parasite & cambium is also extremely varied. Mycorrhizae fungi also produce haustoria apparently which might be the connection with some these accidental (deliberate) epiphytes? What if other high suckering guest species like Peach bush (Ehretia saligna -the most numerous of all the guests – see below) are also partially parasitic? 
Since I don’t use any social media (except to send/receive a few jokes in emails with some old mates) Im always surprised by the bigotry & ignorance on display on my MSN feed. Ive noticed since the failed referendum the racists are out of their boxes & remarking on articles related to any Indig. matters. Take this comment from Ross in the Daily Mail – “I was always taught that the important thing was not how long you were in a place or job, but what you achieved. A boomerang, digeree doo a woomera and some finger paintings are poor achievements for 65,000 years. European and western cultures developed mathematics, universe (universities?) and many other discoveries. Built ships, castles and explored the world. All in a few thousand years. I think rather silly for indigenous people to promote 65,000 here without showing some decent achievements” Really? I see their achievements every single day in the trees and the whole ecology of this landscape. No I dont see pyramids or castles but I don’t read of slavery or exploitation of neighbouring tribes either. I see perfect curves in wood created with fire & stone and wooden rings still visible hundreds of years later. I see mature reproducing trees growing in old eucalypts that no one has noticed for centuries – maybe you should get out more Ross? You know across the GDR (Great Dividing Range) that divides us way more than physically.. Last Saturday at the ALC elections I saw a proud resilient community participating in the best European concept ever – democracy. YAY
