Day length and the plant kingdom

Happy winter solstice – shortest day of the year. This is mid-winter and from here the days will be getting longer.

The plants worked this out eons ago. Because plants need sunlight for photosynthesis, daylight is essential for a plant’s growth. During photosynthesis in green plants, light energy is captured and used to convert water, carbon dioxide, and minerals into oxygen and energy-rich organic compounds.

Plants respond to day length by adapting to seasonal changes – photoperiodism. Some animals too react to day length by hibernating, migrating or changing the colours of their feathers or fur.

Many plants contain a protein that can sense changes in day length. Plants react and adapt to changes in day length by altering their flowering time. Root and stem growth as well as leaf retention can be affected by photoperiodism in most plants.

Some plants are ‘long day’ plants and prefer to flower as the days get longer. Others are ‘short day’ plants and like to flower during winter.

Hakea 'Burrendong Beauty' in a Drouin garden

Many of our native plants are ‘short day’ species. Plenty of native gardens have correas, hakeas, grevilleas, etc. that are in flower at the moment.

Common Heath at Lang Lang

Go for a walk in many of our reserves at this time of year and you will most likely come across examples of Victoria’s floral emblem, Common Heath, in full bloom.

Fungi at Uralla reserve Trafalgar

And of course many members of the fungi kingdom are up and about right now too.

 

Fly Agaric

The Fly Agaric mushroom, Aminata muscaria, is a large, white-gilled mushroom with white spots on a red cap (usually but not always).

Amanita muscaria is an introduced species in Australia, and there are concerns that it may be spreading at the expense of native fungal species. It is almost always found growing in close proximity to introduced tree species such as oaks, birches and pines.

‘Agaric’ is from the Latin agaricum and/or the Greek agarikon which means ‘tree fungus’. The late Middle English, ‘agaryke’ is for a kind of mushroom used for medicinal purposes. Apparently, it was an early European tradition to crush the caps and mix them with milk to attract flies. When the flies drank the milk containing the dissolved mushroom toxin, they died.

Although death is rare in humans from ingestion of the Fly Agaric, in most references it is listed as both poisonous and psychoactive. Symptoms of poisoning include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, hallucinations, involuntary movements, delirium and seizures. The Fly Agaric is in the same genus as the Death Cap mushroom, Aminata phalloides.

One of the issues with the Fly Agaric is its attractiveness to children. It is often used in fairytales and children’s cartoons. There are recorded cases of children being poisoned by eating this toxic fungus.

Pretty but deadly.

 

What’s happened to our promised stronger EPBC Act?

In 2019-20, an  independent review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act declared, “Australia’s natural environment and iconic places are in an overall state of decline and are under increasing threat. The environment is not sufficiently resilient to withstand current, emerging or future threats, including climate change. The environmental trajectory is currently unsustainable.” Further, the review conducted by Professor Graeme Samuel and an expert panel concluded that, “The EPBC Act and its operation requires fundamental reform”.

In 2022, with the election of the new Labor Government, conservationists became optimistic at some new promises by the Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, when she said Labor would fix Australia’s broken environmental protections and put a stop to extinction of native species.

Southern Brown Bandicoot: Endangered - EPBC Act since 2015

A December 2022 media statement from the minister asserts, “Australia’s environment laws are broken” and “…the EPBC Act is outdated and requires fundamental reform”.

In a new Nature Positive Plan the minister has promised, “…stronger laws”, “ a new Environment Protection Agency”, “A target of zero new extinctions”, et al.

Gang-gang Cockatoo: Endangered - EPBC Act since 2022

At a media conference in April this year, Minister Plibersek could not guarantee that the broader package of environment laws would be introduced before the next election which is due some time in the last half of next year.

Strzelecki Gum: Vulnerable - EPBC Act since 2016 

In the meantime, let’s hope our threatened flora, fauna and fungi can survive encroaching climate change and political procrastination?