Aboriginal plant use in south eastern Australia - Australian National ...
Aboriginal plant use in south eastern Australia - Australian National ...
Aboriginal plant use in south eastern Australia - Australian National ...
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Yam daisy or Murnong<br />
Microceris lanceolata<br />
Yam Daisy or Murnong<br />
Digg<strong>in</strong>g stick made from wattle wood and<br />
<strong>use</strong>d by women<br />
Roots were important vegetable foods <strong>in</strong> the <strong>south</strong>east.<br />
Some of the <strong>plant</strong>s whose roots were eaten <strong>in</strong>clude<br />
Bulb<strong>in</strong>e bulbosa (Bulb<strong>in</strong>e Lily), Arthropodium milleflorum<br />
(Vanilla Lily), Burchardia umbellata (Milkmaid) and<br />
Microseris lanceolata (Murnong or Yam Daisy) formerly<br />
known as Microseris scapigera.<br />
Yam Daisy was a most important staple food. Women<br />
dug the roots with digg<strong>in</strong>g sticks and then roasted<br />
them <strong>in</strong> baskets <strong>in</strong> an earth oven.<br />
Digg<strong>in</strong>g for roots turned over the soil and th<strong>in</strong>ned out<br />
the root clumps, two ways of encourag<strong>in</strong>g <strong>plant</strong><br />
production. <strong>Aborig<strong>in</strong>al</strong> people didn’t take the lot or<br />
there’d be none left for next time!<br />
<strong>Aborig<strong>in</strong>al</strong> people believed that the roots of ‘murnong’<br />
should not be collected before the <strong>plant</strong>s flowered. This<br />
was probably beca<strong>use</strong> dur<strong>in</strong>g the drier w<strong>in</strong>ter period<br />
before spr<strong>in</strong>gtime flower<strong>in</strong>g, the roots would not be<br />
fully developed.<br />
Yam Daisy roots collected <strong>in</strong> bowl<br />
made of eucalyptus bark.<br />
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL BOTANIC GARDENS 15.
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