Cyperus eragrostis

Umbrella Sedge at Hackett, ACT

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Identification history

Cyperus eragrostis	28 Dec 2020	RWPurdie
Cyperus eragrostis	28 Dec 2020	AaronClausen
Eryngium ovinum	28 Dec 2020	Avery

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User's notes

Also in the Blue Metal Road gully. The ones in the gullys are still green, delayed flowering due to the rain? They would appear to like water.

6 comments

waltraud wrote:

28 Dec 2020

Umbrella sedges do like water - they also occur in the drain ditch close to Hackett reservoir. I used to cut seeding heads off and placed in a bag then used a mattock to remove the plants since spraying Glypho isn't an option due to frogs and little turtles. hacking them out is extremely hard work which I can't do any more with my bad back ...

Avery wrote:

28 Dec 2020

Gackk ... I don't think my back would like it either ... anyway I'm not going to take a mattock to those areas without competent supervision (or, more likely, at all). So there goes my little theory of where the Hackett blue devils come from ...

waltraud wrote:

28 Dec 2020

Avery
see Blue Devil here: Ehrharta calycina
They are a grassy ecosystem plant species and one of my favourite. Unfortunately, the young leaves that appear in spring are soft and heavily grazed....

Avery wrote:

28 Dec 2020

I know a tiny bit about them (evidently not quite enough) ... thought I had found lots of, experiencing retarded development due to the rain. Somebody ripped up 3/4 along the path that goes straight up from the Bragg St park entrance to the powerlines, probably thinking they were introduced, so I made a sign and put it up. The survivor and the others on and near the main path where they can be found were still there and unmolested as of this arvo.

Idea: perhaps some could be planted up on the slopes under the dead bush branches that are fairly widespread up in places up there.

waltraud wrote:

28 Dec 2020

Avery that is a good idea - planting in unprotected sites would be a waste of time and resources; the great wet will stop and palatable species will be hammered again by grazing. We have lost many Blue devils in certain areas which I monitored for years (for instance east of Kellaway St car park). Perhaps direct seeding would be an option? Question is who would collect seeds or buy seedlings from local source, prepare the planting sites etc? I've stepped back from organising FoMM events...

Avery wrote:

28 Dec 2020

I don't know how to organize anything, and being very lazy, my tendency would be to get permission to gather seeds heads from the ones I know about and put them in protected but sunny locations ... they certainly do seem to be capable of growing without much babying if they don't get eaten. I read that it is also possible to start them from in punnets and plant them, but don't know where to get local seeds.

More reflectively, the idea would be relatively few plants in assorted separated areas, so that there is no great feast for kangaroos, and not too much effort into any place that might be unsuitable for some reason. Ideally somewhat high on slopes, since further seeds might roll downhill (but enough moisture might be a problem, especially in the places with lots of dead bushes to provide protection).

That Kellaway street area was a mass hangout for kangaroos, and may still be (tho on my last trek through the area, I didn't see any, but in Jun 2019 I took two carloads of Russians to view the roos and there were lots of them, acting like trained performers). So it's not surprising that the devils got hammered. Along the path where I find them, perhaps the foot traffic keeps the grazers away.

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