July, 1952 
THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST 
Page thirty-nine 
WILD FLOWER POPULARITY POLL 
By N. LOTHIAN 
At the Wild Flower and Nature Show of 
1951 a poll was conducted in an endeavour 
to discover which, of the many 
beautiful Australian plants displayed at 
our Show, the public considered were out- 
standing. A poll of this nature, of course, 
does not give conclusive results for the 
obvious reason that many plants of equal 
beauty or interest were either not exhibited 
or were not in flower. Then again, to try 
and weigh the pros and cons as to whether 
the Kangaroo Paw is more beautiful than 
the Waratah is similar, shall we say, to try- 
ing to decide whether a motor car is of 
greater use than a diesel electric engine. 
That each of these machines has its uses is 
obvious just as is the question of the ease 
with which the Kangaroo Paw or the Wara- 
tah could be cultivated in a particular 
locality. 
When all is said and done the question 
of cultivation will frequently decide the 
popularity of any plant whether native or 
introduced, although there is, for some un- 
known reason, a definite lure always for the 
gardener to attempt to cultivate the very 
difficult! 
Given hereunder are the ten most popu- 
lar Australian species listed from a total 
display of over 250 species. In all, how- 
ever, practically 110 species were voted on, 
the total number of votes being approxi- 
mately 1,500, and it will be noted that the 
first ten popular plants received almost 
half that number. They are as follows: — 
Anigozanthus Mangle si 77 
Clianthus speciosus 75 
Telopea speciossima 75 
Eucalyptus torquata 69 
Boronia heterophylla 66 
Leschenaultia bilobi 61 
Chamaelaucium uncinatum .. 58 
Scholtzia oligandra 45 
Dry an dr a formosa 39 
Darwinia macrostegia 30 
These ten were closely followed by 
Hakea cucullata (Royal Hakea) and Cal- 
listemon rugulosus (Scarlet Bottle Brush) 
28 votes, Melaleuca radula and Chorizema 
cordata with 27. There is a distinct gap 
between this group and those which ap- 
pealed, naturally, to a limited number of 
people; some of these, however, should be 
listed. Actinodium Cunninghami; Bank- 
sia ericifolia.; Bauera (both species); 
Boronia serrulata (Sydney Rose); Calo- 
thamus species; Calythrix tetragona (Com- 
mon Heath Myrtle); Dendrobium specio- 
sum; Eucalypts Kruseana, macrocarpa and 
preissiana; Hypocalymma robusta (pink 
Myrtle); Prostanthera incisa rosea and 
T etratheca halmatuorum. 
One’s immediate re-action to these lists is 
surprise that what one considers a most 
desirable plant has not been included, e.g., 
no Grevillea received over ten votes, al- 
though six species were included. Only one 
Melaleuca is listed, while such groups as 
Beaufortia, Brachysema, Isopogon and 
Eriostemon received scant attention. 
Regarding this list one is immediately 
struck with the high percentage of non- 
South Australian plants which, of course, 
at once points out the problem of their 
cultivation. Of the first ten, two only, 
namely, Coolgardie Gum and Geraldton 
Wax Flower are easily cultivated, and 
therefore commonly grown. Both are West- 
ern Australian, as is Chorizema cordata, 
which is in the “also rans.” 
The cultivation of our Australian plants 
is no more difficult than any other group of 
plants, and general principles have been 
given in a previous article (South Aus- 
tralian Naturalist, Vol. 26, No. 2, pages 29- 
31). Under our South Australian condi- 
tions, two factors militate against the easy 
and successful cultivation of our plants, 
namely, hard water and limestone condi- 
tions. Areas which do not have limestone 
can usually grow a wider range of plants 
than those that do, while the control which 
the climate has over plant growth is noted 
when we compare the cultivation of plants 
in non-limestone areas on the plains and 
in the Mount Lofty Ranges. 
I would emphasise the following for the 
successful cultivation of our Australian 
plants. First, select species which have a 
reasonable chance of surviving under local 
climatic conditions (governed bv the fol- 
lowing, this more or less covers 90% of all 
plants any one would like to cultivate). 
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