School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences

The Woody Meadows Pilot Plantings Species selection

Woody Meadow Pilot Plantings The base layer provides ground coverage Species planted at the City of and reduces weeds. The bump layer In 2016 we installed two Woody Meadows as Melbourne Pilot Plantings provides the most visual impact and fewer pilot plantings in a collaborative project emergent species are used due to their size. Base layer with the City of Melbourne, the Trawalla Goodenia ovata 'Gold Cover' Foundation, the Royal Botanical Gardens of The woody meadow is maintained by Dampiera alata Victoria and the University of Sheffield. coppicing every 1-3 years to promote Veronica arenaria flowering and dense canopies to exclude Banksia spinulosa subsp. spinulosa This research established two (180 m2) plots weeds. Coppicing is hard-pruning of the Grevillea lanigera 'Mini Prostrate' in the City of Melbourne, which have thrived entire plant (10-20 cm above the ground). Beaufortia sparsa over three years with minimal maintenance. Xanthosia rotundifolia Australian shrublands are highly diverse and Melaleuca thymifolia 'Pink Lace'

occur on nutrient-poor soils , making them Callistemon 'Little John' ideal templates for low-input meadow Veronica perfoliata plantings. Many of these shrubs are also Astartea fascicularis extremely tolerant of disturbance and can Philotheca myoporoides subsp. myoporoides resprout after damage from fire, herbivory, flooding or drought. This ability to resprout Bump layer makes Australian shrubs perfectly suited to Calothamnus quadrifidus coppicing. Acacia acinacea Melaleuca nesophila 'Little Nessie'

We used literature from horticulture and Grevillea 'Coconut Ice' ecology to come up with a list of potential Eucalyptus latens 'Moon Lagoon' species suitable for coppicing in Woody Leptospermum polygalifolium 'Cardwell' The woody meadow pilot plantings were Meadows. This resulted in 1,200 species and designed is a three-layer community to a shortlist of 287 species which were Emergent layer replicate the structure of shrub-based reviewed by an expert panel (Paul Eucalyptus preissiana natural ecosystems and provide visual Thompson, Rodger Elliot, Scott Watson, Alyogyne huegelii interest. Digby Growns, John Arnott and Warren Eucalyptus caesia Worboys). Shrubs were chosen for each layer based on Species for other plantings should be their height at maturity: A final list of 21 species were chosen for the chosen on the basis of their known Woody Meadows based on their capacity to horticultural tolerances and ability to 1) Base layer (shrubs <1 m reshoot after coppicing and drought resprout. 2) Bump layer (shrubs 1-2 m) tolerance. Plants were contract grown by 3) Emergent layer (shrubs >2 m) nurseries and we recommend 9-12 month We recommend planting mixtures of 10-15 lead time for ordering plants. species for Woody Meadows.

For more information, visit woodymeadow.unimelb.edu.au