Every plant in a garden has a history, and a few have histories that changed what people ate, believed and planted. This guide tells the stories worth knowing: the Australian ones first, several of them surprisingly recent, then the old world plants whose names and uses have travelled with people for thousands of years.
Australia's own plant stories
The Wollemi pine
Known only from fossils and presumed extinct for around two million years, a stand of fewer than 100 wild trees was found in 1994 in a canyon in the Wollemi wilderness northwest of Sydney. The exact location is still kept secret to protect the trees from disease and visitors. The species is now propagated commercially and sold legally throughout Australia, which makes it a case of conservation through cultivation.
The foxtail palm
Unknown to Western botany until 1978 and formally described in 1983, this palm grows wild only around Cape Melville in far north Queensland. Its botanical name, Wodyetia bifurcata, honours Wodyeti, an Aboriginal man of the region whose knowledge of the local plants informed its identification. Seed was collected illegally on a large scale once the palm entered cultivation; nursery propagation has long since made that unnecessary. Our foxtail palm guide covers growing one, and the foxtail palm itself is in the range.
The bunya pine
One of Australia's great trees, and one with deep cultural significance. Its cones weigh up to ten kilograms, and the seeds were a major food for Aboriginal peoples of southeast Queensland, who gathered for large ceremonial events when the trees fruited. The bunya pine is a tree for acreage, well away from paths and parked cars.
Macadamia, the one that left and came back
The macadamia is Australia's most commercially significant native food plant and the only Australian native to become a major world food crop. It grows naturally in the rainforests of southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales, was taken to Hawaii in the 1880s where the industry developed, and only returned to large scale Australian cultivation much later. Our guide to bush tucker plants for the home garden covers it and the other native foods worth growing.
Tea tree and manuka
Melaleuca alternifolia, the source of tea tree oil, grows naturally in northern New South Wales and southeast Queensland. Aboriginal peoples used the crushed leaves medicinally long before the oil's antimicrobial properties were documented in the 1920s. Australian research has since confirmed that several native Leptospermum species produce nectar with the same active compound behind manuka honey.
Lomandra and dianella
Both were used across eastern Australia long before they became landscaping staples. Lomandra leaves were woven into baskets, mats and eel traps, and the soft leaf bases eaten. Dianella berries were used as a food and a dye, and the leaves for weaving.
Old world plants that shaped culture
- Barley. One of the first cereals farmed in Mesopotamia, and a foundation of settled agriculture.
- The olive. Grown around the Mediterranean for thousands of years for oil, light and food, and a symbol of peace since antiquity. Olive trees are among the longest lived plants in any garden.
- The sacred lotus. A symbol of purity and rebirth across Asia, because the flower rises clean from the mud of a pond.
- The oak. A symbol of strength and endurance across Europe, and the timber that built its ships and halls. Oak trees still earn that reputation in cool climate gardens.
- Lavender. Used since Roman times to scent washing and bathwater; its name is traditionally linked to the Latin word for washing. Lavender remains one of the most planted scented shrubs in Australia.
- Foxglove and willow. Two garden plants behind modern medicines: foxglove gave the heart drug digoxin, and willow bark led chemists to aspirin. Foxglove is also a reminder that a plant can be both a medicine and a poison.
- Rice, maize and the potato. Three plants that between them feed much of the world, each carried far from where it was first grown.
Plants that arrived and stayed
The other half of the story is less flattering. Research on naturalised plants in Australia has consistently found that the majority of environmental weeds here arrived as garden ornamentals, with lantana, privet, bitou bush, English ivy and agapanthus among them. Prickly pear famously overran millions of hectares of Queensland and New South Wales before being controlled by the introduced Cactoblastis moth, in one of the world's most successful biological control programs.
It is a useful reminder that a plant's history in cultivation and its behaviour in a new country are separate things. Our guide to how invasive plant species affect ecosystems goes further into that.
A note on collecting
Australian native plants are protected under state and federal law, and collecting plants or seed from the wild requires a permit. Buy nursery propagated stock, which is what anything legitimately sold in an Australian nursery will be. Our guide to rare Australian native plants covers how to source the unusual ones ethically.
Growing a piece of history
Many of these plants are easy to live with. A foxtail palm or a macadamia suits a warm garden, lomandra and dianella grow almost anywhere in Australia, and an olive or a lavender asks only for sun and drainage. Planting one is a small way of keeping its story going.
Common questions
What is the rarest Australian plant I can buy?
The Wollemi pine is the best known: fewer than 100 mature trees exist in the wild, yet nursery grown plants are sold legally across Australia.
Which Australian native became a world food crop?
The macadamia, native to the rainforests of southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales.
Where did most of Australia's garden weeds come from?
From gardens. Most environmental weeds here were introduced as ornamental plants, which is why it pays to check a plant's weed status in your region before planting it near bushland.
Ready to plant?
Browse our Australian natives for the local stories, or the native trees range for something that will outlast the garden around it.
