4 replies to this topic

[SunChaser]

I know most people here are mostly interested in ethnobotanicals that are active, but I really want to find this flower and have been searching for it without success for a long time now. I've actually  really been getting into to the native edibles lately, but am yet to honestly ever come across anything that is worth eating for anything else except survival purposes, lol.

So I'm pinning all my hopes on this little flower, since in Tim lowes book 'wild food plants of Australia' he states that it is considered one of the most tastiest native foods known.

So does anyone here have any idea where it can be found in abundance? Thanks.

Peace

[planthelper]

hi!

i got inspired by your opening post, and started googling around, maybe this helps:
http://www.iffa.org....lishing-murnong

anyway, the thread claims, it grows at monash uni, a few people here study there, so should not be a problem.

[SunChaser]

Yeah, good stuff. Murnong is actually an awesome thing to put to those true blue hick Aussies, when there telling you that the aboriginals don't have the right to live by there culture and also collect the dole and say they should either completely live the white mans way or go back to just hunting and gathering. Since Tim Lowes book states that murnong was once abundant all over Victoria and that the aboriginals used to thrive off it, but it has now been nearly completely eradicated from the land due to herding. Which is a perfect example to put to people as one of the reasons why it would be impossible for aboriginals to completely live of the land now.

They say aboriginal women could go out and spend as little as an hour digging up tubers from murnong, which in turn could feed an entire family for a entire day. Which I've always found absolutely amazing. No wonder they had no interest in spending over 8 hours a day breaking there backs, working on crops that could just as easily be wiped out by the elements or disease anyway!    

 I do hope people who have an interest in native edibles will see this thread and maybe acquire murnong to grow on there land and in turn help it reestablish itself.

I've also always thought it would be an interesting venture to try and cultivate it commercially, if you had the land and if it is actually worth eating. Native bush foods do seem to be gathering some popularity these days.

Peace 

[VelvetSiren]

where i live is the traditional home for murnong, once this place was covered in murnong, only remnant grasslands have murnong now, and up in the hills i have seen it in abundance. i just threw some seed out into the garden today from one of my plants. should be around the yarra valley as well.

but it is considered endangered. iramoo at victoria university st albans sell it, and i am sure there are other places in vic that would sell it too.
there is a native nursery in port melbourne i forget its name but they would sell it along with bulbine lilly, chocolate lilly etc as well as other local plants the melbourne region.

i love murnong, i hope to build up my collection and just let it go wild. bring back the murnong is what i say to anyone who is willing to listen. amazingly st albans has commissioned 4 sculptures located throughout the main shopping precinct of st albans dedicated to murnong, which is great i reckon.

good luck with finding it, if i get excess seed i will put it up here

[tripsis]

This place sells tube stock of it. Plants are already mature enough to be flowering and setting seed. They set seed prolifically so a couple of plants will give you hundreds of seeds in a single season.