My little babies

In my copious spare time, one of my projects is to re-establish a population of Mt Lofty Speedwell (Derwentia derwentiana ssp homalodonta) into the gully that runs through our property.

Mt Lofty Speedwell isn't common - in fact it's damn rare. It's recently been nominated as Critically Endangered under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act. Some estimates put the total number of plants left in the wild at between two and three hundred.

So we're fortunate indeed to have a small handful of this very rare plant, still growing on our property. And with help from others, we're preparing sites along our gully to reintroduce plants, and propagating new plants from seed and cuttings.

The cuttings that I took last summer still look miserable, but not dead, and I have great hopes for them reviving in Spring. But the great highlight of the past couple of weeks has been that my seeds have germinated. Using some very simple materials, and with the help of the magic of home-made "smoke water" I seem to have successfully germinated around 30 seedlings which, (putting this in context) equates to around 10% of the known population of the plant!

I'm a very proud dad, and will post some photos of my little babies later on, when there's a bit more to see.

Meantime, for the curious,below is what a mature Derwentia looks like in flower. This is one of my own photos, taken on the property. Many would mistake this unspectacular plant for a weed, and not give it a second thought.