Xanthorrhoea sweet tooth
Now we know plants manufacture sugars. That is a given; all done with solar energy and carbon dioxide. We get the oxygen part of the deal and all is sweet. It is called a symbiotic relationship: we need them and plants more or less rely on us.
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Ah, now I’m fudging it a little because plants can get their C02 fix from the carbon cycle, which is self-generated by their own organic matter breakdown. Yes, I simply put us in the picture because I can’t imagine it all happening if I’m not there.
Call it selfish conceit if you like but when people say our remnant Kurrajong (Brachychiton populneus) in the Biodiversity garden, Elizabeth Park, is at least 200 years old I get all green-eyed, and fidgety, envious, resentful, apprehensive, and anxious. Up there with longevity are the Grass Trees.
I mean, if our average age is around 70 years and common Grass Trees (Xanthorrhoea) and Kurrajongs may have been seedlings when Ned Kelly donned his suit of armour, or worse, when Arthur stepped off his row boat in Sydney Cove, well really, it is just too much, isn’t it!
Did you know a product called Organic Cola is available? We picked up a bottle at a shop in an untamed old section of Sydney called ‘Newtown’ (as ironic as that sounds).
It has the name ‘Wild One’ with no added preservatives, no artificial colours. It has the word organic added to most of its ingredients; being organic sugar (32 grams for a 330 ml bottle) and organic malt extract.
The cola complex has the caffeine of course. According to Colin Campbell of Gardening Australia (Fact Sheet Feb. 2006) our Grass Trees benefit from a liberal dose of sugar. We have X. johnsoni (Mandara in Wiradjuri) and X. glauca (Maybal in Wiradjuri). Not only do these trees manufacture sugar but they also benefit from a cup every month for two years to settle in.
Colin Campbell (Gardening Australia Fact Sheet Feb. 2006), to be remembered with respect and appreciation bordering on awe, advised Grass Trees being transplanted need brown sugar (I’m sure other forms are equally beneficial), to feed the microbes of mycorrhiza which benefit the tree roots.
I suspect our Allocasuarina Diminuta (local bronze leaf She-Oak) has a similar need. Fungal flora in the soil are needed as much as water. So while at present we humans may be languishing in our transient, temporal state, the green leafy sector of our planet not only have an in-built need for sweet dessert from the beginning in their underground root environment, they also make the sugars as an end-product as a part of photosynthesis. Add to this scenario the idea that many have an extended life span and they come out looking contented, benign, luscious and very sweet. I’m eating my heart out just thinking about it.
