Kangaroo’s Paws Can Be Grown In New Zealand

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31196, 21 October 1966, Page 6

Kangaroo’s Paws Can Be Grown In New Zealand

The Australian flora is unique in a number of ways, although there are few of the plants which do not belong to families species of which are to be found elsewhere in the world. Australia having been separated from the Asian continent in pre-historic times, and the areas in which the plants sometimes have to battle to survive, let alone grow, have helped to keep them distinct, both in their development and the type of species which exist. Indeed, the diversification of plant life to be found in areas ranging from arid desert to tropical jungles is fascinating and nowhere is this more so perhaps than in Western Australia. This State is renowned for its varied and colourful flora, which in spring time turns a sometimes ordinary, perhaps even monotonous, vegetation, which may stretch for hundreds of miles, into a veritable kaleidoscope of colour. More than 6000 species have been recorded in this part of Australia, predominantly in the southwestern region, and added to this are some outstanding forest trees, particularly karri. It is rightly referred to as “the wild flower State” and it is easy to understand why the area is a Mecca for botanists and plant lovers generally. Not so many years ago it was decided to make official the use of floral emblems for each State and in 1960 the I kangaroo paw, Anigozanthos i manglesii, was selected as emblematic of Western Austra--1 lia. The kangaroo paws are a group of plants without similarity elsewhere in Australia or, for that matter, the rest of the world’s continents.

Belonging to the same family as the daffodils and belladonna lily, the “paws,” so named because before the flowers open the complete inflorescence resembles the paw of a kangaroo, number nine species including the black “paw,” Macropidia fulginosa. In their native habitat they ; may be found growing in the I poorer soils, in low. open 'scrub or bush, on gravelly

heaths and in the sand dunes of the coastal plains to an altitude of about 1000 feet. In such places they are subjected to a relatively low average humidity but reasonably high temperatures with droughts in summer and most of the 20in to 40in rainfall during the winter.

Although easily raised from seed the shoots in time generate from small rhizomes from which propagation by division can, in some cases, be achieved. The leaves are strap-like with a defined midrib along which the two sides of the leaf are folded forward. The inflorescence emerges from between a sheath formed by the leaf at the base and opens successively from the lowest upwards. During the hot dry summer months the leaves on some species may wither completely whilst on others they stay green; however the root system always shrivels up to burst into growth again when the rains come. This is a phenomena which has not always been apparent with specimens under cultivation. One of the most successful "paws” in cultivation outside Western Australia is the giant kangaroo paw, Anigozanthos flavida. Its inflorescence is in excess of five feet (up to seven feet in high rainfall forest and scrub country which are its natural environments) which gear flowers in colours of ail shades of green to deep red through yellow tints. In spite of this it is not so spectacular as some of the others.

Anigozanthos manglesii, which has already been mentioned, was named after an English botanist who promoted a botanical expedition in that part of Australia. It is regarded as the best of all with its 30in racemes or spikes of which single or once-forked stalks bear red. green and yellow flowers. Deep red and purplish woolly hairs clothe the flower stalks up to the velvety green swollen bases of the flowers.

Anigozanthos rufa is called the red kangaroo paw and was first described in 1792 by a Frenchman. It does not dry off in summer and possesses a rare pink form. There are two species of “paws” which are referred to as catspaws, namely Anigozanthos humilis, the small or humble catspaw which rarely exceeds 18in in height, and Anigozanthos preissi or Albany’s catspaw which is only found in a restricted area near Albany. The flowers of the former are yellow and orange although local variations exist of pure yellow to red. The other “paw” is named after the German botanist

who collected many specimens during a four-year stay in Western Australia. It possesses shiny green, thick and hairy leaves with red orange and yellow flowers.

The black kangaroo paw, Macropidia fuliginosa, derives its generic name from macropus, which is Latin for kangaroo, and fulig, meaning black. It possesses flowers of a different shape and only one seed in each compartment of the ovary in comparison with Anigozanthos, which has two or more seeds in each. The leaves are smooth yellow green with yellow margins and darker tips, while the flowers are pale yellow green with black plumose woolly hairs which decrease in number once the flowers open. The seed requires stratification before it will germinate. Growing these plants can be quite fascinating, especially as very few real attempts have been made to do so in New Zealand. Hybrids are easy to obtain between selected species. There are no problems in raising seedlings from seed (other than with the black paw, and Anigozanthos rufa and pul-i cherimma, the ovaries of which must be cracked open to extract the seed) which can be obtained from such establishments as the Perth State Forest Department, Perth Botanic Gardens, The Tree Society and the West Australian Wildflower Growers Society Incorporated, all of Western Australia. ■ Placed in a good soil mixture such as John Innes Seed, it can be expected that germination will take between one and two months. When the seedlings are between one and a half to two inches high they should be pricked out into a well drained, acid soil in a warm position which is not subjected to more than a very few degrees of frost. Alternatively they could be grown in pots. If kept watered they will not become dormant during the summer but once they have been allowed to dry off they will remain so until winter, irrespective of what attempts are made to revive them. I After the flowers have withered they should not be allowed to seed unless this is required. The tops should be cut back and burnt as a possible means of preventing attacks by the disease ink spot, to which some, such as the black paw and Anigozani thos manglesii, are particularly prone. This disease i causes black spots on the ' leaves and can cause the death of the whole plant. ! Copper oxychloride, or |thiram. is useful for treatIment of such.