The following article is taken from the Banksia Bulletin spring 2025 edition.
Words by Rob Saunders, Convenor, Friends of Long Hollow Heathland.
Beautifully symmetrical especially when young, the cherry bollart is normally a dense bright green but can sometimes turn bronze in winter. Its neat pendulous branchlets and rough brown bark stand out among the often-scruffy eucalypts and wattles. It almost seems that it doesn't belong here.
Its botanical name is Exocarpos cupressiformis. The generic part of the name (exo - outside; carpos - fruit) highlights one of its unusual characteristics: its seed sits outside the edible fruit-like stalk. And the species part of the name reflects the cypress-like appearance of its form and foliage.
Cherry ballarts have proved remarkably difficult to propagate and to establish, because of their semi-parasitic nature. If they were easier to grow, I'm sure we would know them much better. Over many decades, people have tried to propagate cherry ballarts from seed, stem cuttings and root cuttings, generally with little success. The secret to its propagation remains a mystery.
Those who have tried to propagate cherry ballart report that seed is often hard to collect and tends not to remain viable for long. Seeds that have passed through the gut of a bird seem to germinate more reliably. But they are slow.
Even bird-ingested seed can take 6-18 months to sprout (Murray Ralph, Growing Australian Native Plants from Seed). Ralph suggests that removal of the fleshy fruit and cracking the hard outer case can improve results. But the next step in propagation is just as tricky, because cherry ballarts require a root-host species for successful growth.
Potting up seedlings with native grasses seems to be beneficial. Once established they are typically hardy and drought tolerant but getting to that stage is very difficult.
Strangely, in some of our reserves, including Long Hollow Heathland in Beaumaris and one section of Cheltenham Park, wild cherry ballarts abound.
In parts of the south-west corner of Long Hollow where an ecological burn was carried out in 2018, they have become the most dominant species.
This overabundance suggests we could perhaps do some controlled experiments in propagating cherry ballart without risking environmental damage.
The 2024 Cheltenham Park ecological burn site already has many seedlings, and we might start seeing some appear in the Long Hollow 2025 burn site over the next 12 months.
The juvenile leaves of cherry ballart seedlings are distinctive and look quite different to the mature foliage. Planting suitable root-hosts near young cherry ballart seedlings might assist their establishment and perhaps even allow the eventual transplantation of some.
Cherry ballart is naturally widespread in dry forests and woodlands throughout south-eastern Australia, including Tasmania. Throughout its range, Aboriginal people are known to have harvested the sweet fruits of the cherry ballart in season. They knew to avoid eating its hard seeds, which contain a toxic acid. Other parts of the tree were also used medicinally.
Cherry ballart also has important and intriguing Aboriginal cultural significance. In a story told by an Aboriginal Learning Facilitator at Cranbourne Botanic Gardens, cherry ballarts represent children: they can only grow by being connected to the roots of a parent plant. It is only after a cherry ballart has established and matured that is it able to live independently of the parent, just like children.
Stories relating to this symbolic meaning demonstrate a deep ecological understanding of the plant's semi-parasitic nature. Many Aboriginal communities also use the aromatic smoke produced by burning green foliage from the cherry ballart in Welcome to Country ceremonies.
This adds another layer of meaning and metaphor, emphasising the way visitors to Country are being invited by Traditional Owners to share its resources.
As modern life distances us increasingly from contact with nature, we tend to forget that we are part of an ecological community that includes all life within our environment.
