Hannah Hammoud
There is a new friendly neighbour in town looking to meet Cairnlea residents.
Local green thumbs have banded together to help create a podolepis plant parade on the streets surrounding each of their three native grasslands, and they want the neighbouring residents in Cairnlea to be part of it.
Each house facing the reserves will be given a basalt podolepis plant – a native grassland wildflower that provides nectar for butterflies and small birds.
The project is a collective effort from the Cairnlea Conservation Reserves Committee of Management, the Friends of Iramoo and the Iramoo Native Plant Nursery.
The team encourages residents to plant their podolepis on their nature strip or front garden, or keep it as a pot plant near their doorstep.
Cairnlea Conservation Reserves Committee member Megan O’Shea said she hopes the plant parade helps to build neighbourliness in the area as well as to extend the grasslands beyond its official boundaries.
“I live locally and we are so lucky to have these native grasslands in our neighbourhood. This parade will allow residents to have a piece of it in their home and help us to build a relationship with the people who neighbour onto the grassland reserves,” she said.
Ms O’Shea said the podolepis parade will serve as a stepping stone for butterflies and other pollinators travelling between the Cairnlea grasslands.
“The grasslands protect threatened species and we hope that by planting a parade of podolepis it will give pollinators a chance to live a bit further beyond the grasslands.”
By increasing the number of podolepis plants around the reserves, residents will be helping increase the food resources available for small grassland animals. Ms O’Shea said the parade serves as an ‘insurance policy’ for local pollinators.
“If pollinators are able to have these stepping stones between the three grasslands then we can maintain those populations as pollinators,” she said.
“The more resources there are, the more likely these populations can persist, and if we don’t lose a population at one of the three grasslands, then hopefully these resources will entice them to populate and move back in.”
Podolepis parade packs will be delivered to residents on the weekend of September 23-24.
