Interesting.I came across the Burrawan at Yarahapini a decade or so ago. They were plentiful and some had seeds in large numbers. Beautiful plants. Thanks for sharing.
I drove through thousands of them just recently. They were nearly all in flower/head. I knew about the leeching of toxins to eat the seeds but did not know the red part was also eaten after detoxification. Awesome video mate. New sub!
They thrive around Rockhampton. The natives used to cracking the seeds then put them in a dilly in running water for a day or two , crushed them then roasted them as Johnny cakes. Early settlers inqueensnd used the leaves to cover Bush houses to give fern etc cover from the sun. They grew among grasstrees. In the berserker ranges you saw either you knew the other was near. We just called them zamias.
Pretty sure that the Buddawang range & national Park are named after these plants; which are ubiquitous thru the whole range, particularly along the ridge-lines. The early surveyors, at least in NSW, got place-names from the native inhabitants, and I guess they did the best they could manage to convert them into Anglo script.
Sorry for the loss of Jesse. It's always so hard to lose an animal companion, a member of the family. I have been enjoying burrawangs for decades as they are prolific where I live. The fact they were here before dinosaurs is new to me, though. I will look at them with new wonder. Thanks for posting.
Thanks. Jesse was indeed an ambassador for dingoes and a wonderful companion. One was never without a conversation because people would identify him as a dingo or sidle up and ask, diplomatically, "'scuse me, your dog ... is he ... a ... dingo?". It's actually Cycads as a whole that date from before the dinosaurs and the flowering plants and we don't know quite how far back the present-day Burrawang extends. But they've probably been in pretty much the present form for tens of millions of years.
How Good Is That!!! How surreal Where Time No Longer Matters or Dictates Life.😊 They've almost got a plastic texture like the Wollomi Pine. Very Attractive and Prehistoric. Thankyou ❤❤❤
Comrade, you upped the bar for Sir Richard Attenborough (once again). I wish I'd had this info BEFORE Duntroon sent us into this magnificent area for survival training. It would have saved a nasty gut ache!!! Send ADFA a copy. Well done mate. Ps. Sorry to hear the passing of Jesse, a true 4 legged legend.
John, nice to hear from you! So you actually ate the kernel??!! I would have thought Duntroon would have had some knowledgeable botanist lecture you on what was edible and what was not. And yes, Jesse was a legend. It's been hard to lose a companion like that.
Always been facinated by cycads! They have this superficial innocuousness as one, in ignorance, could easily mistake them for a palm yet they hid such a deep history. Looking forward to more videos about the flora and fauna where you live. Also, RIP Jesse
If you haven't already viewed it, you might like 'The Pygmy, the Feathertail, the Bushfire and the Banksia', a piece about the interaction of flora and fauna after the terrible 2019-20 bushfires. th-cam.com/video/j2R2BsVp6Wk/w-d-xo.html
I love these plants & have been searching for more information on them, particularly the Australian ones, so thanks for a very informative video. When you made reference to the Noongar people of WA i thought of our local cycad Macozamia Reidlii common in & around Perth. Some are very large & I think they must be very old as they appear to be slow growing.
I was riding my mountain bike 6-12 months ago around the Potato Point/Brou Lake/Bodalla area which in parts is mainly Spotted Gum & Burrawang forest. Something had clearly been eating the Burrawang seeds as they were scattered about. As I was riding 🚲 along wondering what could've been eating the seeds... I came across an emu in the forest! 😮 He looked as surprised to see me as I was him 😂 but I wondered if it had been eating the seeds and spreading them around a bit like a cassowary?? I hadn't thought about the lyrebirds role before, but have seen plenty in Murramarrang, Meroo NP and Brooman state forest. Thanks for the video.
An emu! Wow! Unusual top see them in forest close to the coast. When I was a kid I saw a few at Tomakin, before the suburb was there. Last time I saw emus close to the coast was beside the Nerriga Road about 40km west of Nowra. But unusual things do happen. I had to shoo a Wallaroo off the road near Moruya Airport a few months back. He shouldn't have been on the coast side of the range!
It's possible that the massive clearing of forest and forest understory in the 2019-20 wildfires made it easier for emus to move towards the coast. The fires created a temporary (?) understory of herbs and grasses where the fire crowned and the forest canopy was destroyed and that might have favoured emus. Of course in the longer term the result has been huge areas of impenetrable acacia regrowth they'd find it hard to move through. @@wademellor5304
The red fruit is not toxic, that's a misnomer. But it is the most astringent thing I have ever eaten. The astringency makes it impossible to eat raw (unless your a silly white scientist, who just had to prove a point, well I guess that's me). After fermenting it is eatable but totally lacking in flavour and not worth the trouble.
Yeah, the research I cited in the credits was skeptical about the toxicity of the WA species but I thought I'd better err on the side of caution. "Don't try this without adult supervision, kids1" and all that. And I've noticed that so many of the small berries that our native fauna consume with gusto are bitter and tasteless.
Interesting.I came across the Burrawan at Yarahapini a decade or so ago. They were plentiful and some had seeds in large numbers. Beautiful plants. Thanks for sharing.
I drove through thousands of them just recently. They were nearly all in flower/head.
I knew about the leeching of toxins to eat the seeds but did not know the red part was also eaten after detoxification.
Awesome video mate. New sub!
They thrive around Rockhampton. The natives used to cracking the seeds then put them in a dilly in running water for a day or two , crushed them then roasted them as Johnny cakes. Early settlers inqueensnd used the leaves to cover Bush houses to give fern etc cover from the sun. They grew among grasstrees. In the berserker ranges you saw either you knew the other was near. We just called them zamias.
I think it's a different species of cycad around Rockhampton.
Pretty sure that the Buddawang range & national Park are named after these plants; which are ubiquitous thru the whole range, particularly along the ridge-lines.
The early surveyors, at least in NSW, got place-names from the native inhabitants, and I guess they did the best they could manage to convert them into Anglo script.
Sorry for the loss of Jesse. It's always so hard to lose an animal companion, a member of the family.
I have been enjoying burrawangs for decades as they are prolific where I live. The fact they were here before dinosaurs is new to me, though. I will look at them with new wonder. Thanks for posting.
Thanks. Jesse was indeed an ambassador for dingoes and a wonderful companion. One was never without a conversation because people would identify him as a dingo or sidle up and ask, diplomatically, "'scuse me, your dog ... is he ... a ... dingo?". It's actually Cycads as a whole that date from before the dinosaurs and the flowering plants and we don't know quite how far back the present-day Burrawang extends. But they've probably been in pretty much the present form for tens of millions of years.
When I was poorer, I dug one out for a Xmas tree. That root was something else
How Good Is That!!!
How surreal Where Time No Longer Matters or Dictates Life.😊
They've almost got a plastic texture like the Wollomi Pine.
Very Attractive and Prehistoric.
Thankyou ❤❤❤
Lovely plants do exist million years
Ago
Thank you
For sharing
Comrade, you upped the bar for Sir Richard Attenborough (once again). I wish I'd had this info BEFORE Duntroon sent us into this magnificent area for survival training. It would have saved a nasty gut ache!!! Send ADFA a copy. Well done mate.
Ps. Sorry to hear the passing of Jesse, a true 4 legged legend.
John, nice to hear from you! So you actually ate the kernel??!! I would have thought Duntroon would have had some knowledgeable botanist lecture you on what was edible and what was not. And yes, Jesse was a legend. It's been hard to lose a companion like that.
Thanks I s for your video upload. Sorry you lost Jesse. It is sad to lose a mate.
Always been facinated by cycads! They have this superficial innocuousness as one, in ignorance, could easily mistake them for a palm yet they hid such a deep history. Looking forward to more videos about the flora and fauna where you live.
Also, RIP Jesse
If you haven't already viewed it, you might like 'The Pygmy, the Feathertail, the Bushfire and the Banksia', a piece about the interaction of flora and fauna after the terrible 2019-20 bushfires. th-cam.com/video/j2R2BsVp6Wk/w-d-xo.html
I love these plants & have been searching for more information on them, particularly the Australian ones, so thanks for a very informative video. When you made reference to the Noongar people of WA i thought of our local cycad Macozamia Reidlii common in & around Perth. Some are very large & I think they must be very old as they appear to be slow growing.
Great video!
Thank you 🙂🦘
I didn't know any of that, thanks !
Wonderfully interesting and greatly explained
Sarcotesta is the name for the pulp surrounding the seed.
The Zamias in Noongar country are Macrozamia riedlei and M. fraseri
thaanks
Great video glad I found your channel
Thanks! I'm also now on BlueSky where I post 30 second videos about individual species: @gavingatenby.bsky.social
I was riding my mountain bike 6-12 months ago around the Potato Point/Brou Lake/Bodalla area which in parts is mainly Spotted Gum & Burrawang forest. Something had clearly been eating the Burrawang seeds as they were scattered about. As I was riding 🚲 along wondering what could've been eating the seeds... I came across an emu in the forest! 😮 He looked as surprised to see me as I was him 😂 but I wondered if it had been eating the seeds and spreading them around a bit like a cassowary?? I hadn't thought about the lyrebirds role before, but have seen plenty in Murramarrang, Meroo NP and Brooman state forest. Thanks for the video.
An emu! Wow! Unusual top see them in forest close to the coast. When I was a kid I saw a few at Tomakin, before the suburb was there. Last time I saw emus close to the coast was beside the Nerriga Road about 40km west of Nowra. But unusual things do happen. I had to shoo a Wallaroo off the road near Moruya Airport a few months back. He shouldn't have been on the coast side of the range!
@possm1 This emu was literally 200-300m from coast 😂 There was some farm land a km or two away though.
It's possible that the massive clearing of forest and forest understory in the 2019-20 wildfires made it easier for emus to move towards the coast. The fires created a temporary (?) understory of herbs and grasses where the fire crowned and the forest canopy was destroyed and that might have favoured emus. Of course in the longer term the result has been huge areas of impenetrable acacia regrowth they'd find it hard to move through. @@wademellor5304
a shade lover
The red fruit is not toxic, that's a misnomer. But it is the most astringent thing I have ever eaten. The astringency makes it impossible to eat raw (unless your a silly white scientist, who just had to prove a point, well I guess that's me). After fermenting it is eatable but totally lacking in flavour and not worth the trouble.
Yeah, the research I cited in the credits was skeptical about the toxicity of the WA species but I thought I'd better err on the side of caution. "Don't try this without adult supervision, kids1" and all that. And I've noticed that so many of the small berries that our native fauna consume with gusto are bitter and tasteless.
Tar mate