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People and Plants on our land
Introduction
Roots, tubers
Most of the plant products commonly
eaten today in Australia have
originated in other continents. The
popular fruits and vegetables that we
eat have origins in the wild jungles,
grasslands and bushlands of many
countries around the globe. In most
cases, these foods were first eaten by
people indigenous to the continents
where the plants evolved.
Plants such as carrots store energy in
roots and others, such as potatoes,
store energy in underground stems.
These storage organs can be a rich
source of carbohydrates. Some native
plants in Australia and Tasmania also
use this system of energy storage and
contain some of the ingredients needed
to become nutritional food sources for
people.
Many common food plants existed as
inferior ancestors of the plants we
know today – subsequent cultivation
and selective breeding of desirable
food plants has resulted in the
proliferation of a select range of
common food plants. While the range
may seem diverse as one wanders the
aisles of the fruit market, the popular
varieties, especially in Australia, are
but a small fraction of the plant species
that have been used for food and
nutrition by indigenous people.
Energy storing features of the
following Tasmanian plants (golden
bulbine-lily, short potato-orchid, and
yam daisy) have been used as food.
Australian flora is unique. The
isolation of the continent for millions
of years has led to an evolution of a
flora that shares characteristics with
other continents, but also has a
distinctive Australian element. All
plants, with few exceptions, use the
same basic means of existence –
energy is harnessed from sunlight,
water and carbon dioxide to produce
carbohydrates (starches and sugars).
Mineral nutrients are collected from
the soil and atmosphere and are used
by the plant. The resultant growth and
production of roots, tubers, seeds, fruit,
nuts and vegetable matter provide
people and animals with a fundamental
source of nutrition.
Aboriginal people have used native
species as fruit and vegetables for
thousands of years.
Golden bulbine-lily - Bulbine bulbosa
(C. Payne © Australian National Botanic Gardens)
Short potato-orchid - Gastrodia
sesamoides
(C. Payne © Australian National Botanic Gardens)
People and Plants on our land
Yam daisy - Microseris lanceolata
(C. Payne © Australian National Botanic Gardens)
Fruit and seeds
Apples, oranges, and other fruit are the
parts of a plant that have evolved to
facilitate reproduction and dispersal of
seed. Fruits come in all shapes and
sizes and occur on many of our native
plants. Wild fruits are often inferior to
their cultivated cousins in shape, size
and flavour. However, the origins of
the apples, pears and peaches that we
know today were also once wild fruit
in their indigenous habitat, but through
cultivation and selection of certain
characteristics, we have changed the
wild fruit into varieties that we find
more palatable.
Fruiting bodies of species such as
kangaroo apple (Solanum laciniatum)
and native pigface (Carpobrotus
rossii) have been used as food.
Native pigface - Carpobrotus rossii
(Photo S. Harris)
Common
native-cherry
tree
(Exocarpos cupressiformis) and coast
beardheath (Leucopogon parviflorus)
have been used as food in Tasmania
and mainland Australia. Seed pods
from the coast wattle (Acacia
longifolia subsp. sophorae) can be
roasted and the seeds eaten.
Coast beardheath - Leucopogon
parviflorus
(Photo S. Harris)
Kangaroo apple - Solanum laciniatum
(Photo S. Harris)
Common native-cherry - Exocarpus
cupressiformis
(C. Payne © Australian National Botanic Gardens)
People and Plants on our land
Stems, pith and rhizomes
The starchy inner pith of some plant
species provides adequate nutrition to
become part of a balanced diet. The
rough treefern (Cyathea australis) can
be harvested and roasted – its thick
inner pith was valued as an important
food in many areas of Tasmania. The
rough tree fern was considered
superior eating over the soft treefern
variety (Dicksonia antarctica). The
common bracken fern also contains a
starchy underground rhizome, and the
bracken root was roasted and eaten
with kangaroo meat as part of the
staple diet of Aboriginal people.
Consumption of bracken (Pteridium
esculentum) would be discouraged
today because it is considered to
contain a human carcinogen.
The sagg (Lomandra longifolia)
contains a tasty and succulent leaf base
that is similar in taste to raw beans or
peas; the seeds are also a source of
nourishment.
Sagg - Lomandra longifolia
(C. Payne © Australian National Botanic Gardens)
Soft tree fern - Dicksonia antarctica
(B. Bruen © Australian National Botanic Gardens)
Medicine plants
Over 500 plants in Australia are known
to have been used for medicinal
purposes, long before the development
of synthetic drugs. For thousands of
years plants have been used to treat
many illnesses and to treat wounds.
Pharmacology and botany were once
inseparable fields of study and intricate
knowledge of the curative properties of
plants is developed to treat many kinds
of illness. Around the world,
indigenous peoples developed a deep
knowledge of the plants that grow in
their country. This knowledge has
provided the world with substances
such as aspirin, quinine to treat
malaria, drugs for cancer treatment,
and many other drugs that are relied
upon today in Western medicine.
Many more plant treatments are yet to
be evaluated scientifically.
Plants contain a variety of complex
and sophisticated biologically active
chemical
compounds.
Little
is
understood about the role of many of
these compounds, however it is
assumed that in many cases these
chemicals may protect the plant from
disease or being eaten. Often medicinal
plants are shown to contain tannins,
such as those found in tea, or chemical
alkaloids that are physiologically
active in mammals, including human
People and Plants on our land
beings. Examples of well known
alkaloids are cocaine, strychnine and
nicotine. Many species of Australian
and
Tasmanian
plants
contain
alkaloids, and some of these are used
by doctors to extract chemicals that are
used as valuable sources of medicine.
Examples are the Kangaroo apple
(Solanum laciniatum), which contains
steroids that are active against cancer
development, and the Australian
corkwood Duboisia spp., which
contains an alkaloid (hyoscine) that is
used to treat disorders associated with
the nervous system. These plants were
used by Aboriginal people long before
being identified as being useful by
modern science.
The destruction of species and of
potentially beneficial plants occurs
without the awareness of the benefits
they may posses. Globally, there are
many plants becoming extinct,
particularly in tropical regions. The
properties of many of these may never
be known. The properties that plants
possess have the potential to provide
many more benefits to enhancing the
quality of life for human beings and
benefiting the greater environment.
Prepared by Andry Sculthorpe, Biodiversity
Conservation Branch, Resource Management and
Conservation Division, Department of Primary
Industries and Water.
Text © Government of Tasmania 2005
The Crown does not accept legal responsibility for
the accuracy, completeness or relevance to the
user’s purpose, or the information herein and those
using it for whatever purpose are advised to verify it
with the relevant source to obtain any appropriate
professional advice.