The response to environmental flows of a culturally significant flood-dependent species: Centipeda cunninghamii (Asteraceae)
William Higgisson
A C , Tanya M. Doody B , Cherie Campbell A and Fiona J. Dyer A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Centre for Applied Water Science, University of Canberra, 11 Kirinari Street, Bruce, ACT 2617, Australia.
B CSIRO Land and Water, Locked Bag 2, Glen Osmond, SA 5064, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email. will.higgisson@canberra.edu.au
Marine and Freshwater Research 72(7) 1086-1091 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF20314
Submitted: 20 October 2020 Accepted: 11 January 2021 Published: 8 February 2021
Abstract
Centipeda cunninghamii (old man weed) is a culturally significant plant that is widely distributed across the floodplain wetlands of the Murray–Darling Basin. This short communication combines aboriginal and non-aboriginal knowledge of C. cunninghamii to highlight its importance in river–floodplain systems and to add to the flow-ecology knowledge base for this species. Percentage cover data for C. cunninghamii, collected from the floodplains and wetlands of the lower Lachlan River system from 2014 to 2019 were used and compared with data on time-since-flooding and soil moisture to describe this species’ response to flooding and drying. The results of this study show how the occurrence and distribution of C. cunninghamii in the landscape is related to the occurrence and distribution of inundation and that environmental flows can be used to maintain this culturally important plant.
Keywords: Aboriginal values, non-indigenous knowledge, flow ecology, floodplain vegetation.
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