The value of Ballarat’s Victoria Park is being more and more appreciated as the city grows. One of the significant values of this site is its range of remnant native plants.
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Shown above is just of the many wildflowers found earlier this week. A small plant by the name of scaly buttons, it is not common in the park, so its continued existence there is all the more important.
Scaly buttons, along with white milkmaids, purple chocolate lilies and yellow bulbine lilies grow in Victoria Park in the parts retained as native grassland.
One section was burnt earlier this year, and the wildflowers have appreciated the open spaces left by the fire. Many are now flowering nicely, despite the dry winter and spring.
A group of two-dozen people wandered through a section on the western side of the park earlier this week and found – as well as those already mentioned – species of matrush, sedge, bossiaea, sheep’s burr, sun orchid, golden moths orchid, cranesbill, sundew, rice flower and more.
As well as these plants, several attractive native grasses were also listed. Kangaroo grass is common.
A highlight was the discovery of a small wildflower known as sweet hound’s tongue, not known in Victoria Park previously. This plant has tiny but strongly fragrant white flowers. The pleasant perfume surprised all those present, causing some to wonder why it has not been used commercially.
Sweet hound’s tongue, scaly buttons and other associated species give us a clue to the grassy woodland of more than 40 plant species that once covered the western parts of Ballarat. The retained sections of native plants in Victoria Park are thus a living museum, a valuable part of Ballarat’s heritage.
While scaly buttons is not common in Victoria Park, it remains fairly common in winter-wet parts of the district where the heavy soil has not been greatly disturbed.
A member of the daisy family, it lacks petals. It grows about 10-15cm tall and its bright golden flowers are about 10mm wide.
The button flowers attract small insects. It gets its name from the “scales” on the outside of its flowerhead and on its thin dark stems.
BIRD WALK
Last weekend’s bird walk at Lake Wendouree listed 46 species of birds. Among them were whiskered tern, freckled duck, blue-billed duck, straw-necked ibis, great egret, nankeen night heron and sacred kingfisher.
The sacred kingfisher is a recent arrival, returning from its northern winter haunts.
The handsome night herons had also been absent for several months.