Resources: Update to the Growing Illawarra Natives website!

We're really thrilled to announce that, after months of work, the Growing Illawarra Natives website has recently been updated. As attentive folks might have noticed, we've added around fifty new plant species, many of them the harder-to-identify plants such as grasses. Whoohoo - it's been a long time in preparation 😀

An image of Wallaby Grass (Rytidosperma longifolium), just one of many grasses added to the Growing Illawarra Natives website. Image by Tony Rodd.

The additions reflect changing interest in and knowledge of local plant species across the Illawarra. We regularly receive requests for plant identification support via email and our social media presence. People are interested in plants that would not have a natural place in gardens, such as the Giant Stinging Tree (Dendrocnide excelsa) or the Stinging Nettle (Urtica incisa). So of course we've added them to our plant database!

Fruit of the Giant Stinging Tree (Dendrocnide excelsa), just starting to colour up in the Illawarra Rhododendron and Rainforest Garden in June. This is a local species that many people asked us to include on the Growing Illawarra Natives website. Image by Emma Rooksby.

And there's also a growing interest in the plants of the critically endangered ecological community Illawarra Lowlands Grassy Woodland, thanks to the awesome Guardians of the Grassy Woodland project and heaps of community energy and enthusiasm. Profiles of special but rarely-spotted plants such as the Pale Grass Lily (Caesia parviflora) have been added to the website.

Flowers of the Pale Grass Lily (Caesia parviflora var. vittata), observed and photographed by Penny Sadubin.

There's even a new Collection for grassy woodland species, which you can access here.

Enormous thanks to Daniel Halldorsson for doing the patient work behind the scenes to update the website, including building new features that will make it more accessible for the public and easier for us admins to manage in future. Here's to more of that!