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A Wide and Open Land – This is the title of Peter Ridgeway’s book telling the story of his walk across the Cumberland Plain in 2019. We were fortunate to have Peter as our guest speaker at the February meeting.

Ferns are a distinct group of vascular plants and have been around for about 360 million years. Those early forests of fern ancestors produced the coal that we so rely upon today. The ferns are separated from the other vascular plant groups, conifers and flowering plants, in that they do not produce seeds, but spore.…

On Saturday 24 September we celebrated 50 years since the Parramatta Hills Group was established. The venue was the Muirfield Golf Club, where we had a panoramic view over the golf course trees and greens. 34 guests sat down to a delicious two-course meal followed by tea and coffee and birthday cake.

Fleurs de Villes FEMMES – In August there was a stunning exhibition at the Calyx in the Royal Botanic Gardens. This exhibition was a fresh floral celebration of 16 remarkable women. Some were household names, such as Kylie Minogue, Nicole Kidman and Malala Yousafzai. Included were two women who have contributed to the study of…

The colour blue in nature – The colour blue accounts for less than 1 in 10 plants, and far fewer animals are blue. Part of the reason is that there isn’t really a true blue colour or pigment in nature, and both plants and animals have to perform tricks of the light to appear blue.

Jones Road Fire Trail walk Kenthurst – One of the upsides of this walk was that we were able to identify the beautiful Boronia that is widespread here. Previously we thought it to be Boronia ledifolia, but thanks to Wendy and Sue, concluded that it is B. rubiginosa

Basic Bushland Photography – Lachlan started with information on the different cameras that might be suitable for bushland photography, and various accessories that help to improve our experience and results. He also discussed tripods and interchangeable lenses for more specialist photography. But don’t despair – we can all start with whatever camera we might have…

Waterfall Circuit Walk, Lawson – On 14th May Lesley Waite and Ian Cox went for a bushwalk at South Lawson with a small group of fern enthusiasts. The four waterfalls on the 2.5km circuit, Junction Falls, Cataract Falls, Federal Falls and Adelina Falls, were flowing as never before after all the rain, and looked awesome.

Account of an APS NSW four day visit to properties in Central West NSW – Wellington, Burrendong, Dubbo, Narromine and Parkes

Porters Road Fire Trail – There are not too many ridge walks in The Hills, as the ridges were originally cleared for farms and orchards in the 19th century, and then gradually subdivided for suburbs in the 20th century. However, there remains an excellent uncleared sandstone ridge at the end of Porters Road Kenthurst.

Australian plants on clay – Many Eastern Australian plants flourish in the sandstone soils close to our coasts in the sandy environment of the Great Dividing Range. Eremophila flourishes in the dry sandy soils of Western Australia but in New South Wales Eremophila often resists the humidity of our coastal environment but resists, even more,…

Plants for Gardens in the Shade – Angie learned about native plants when helping her husband Mark Ferrington run specialist nursery Sydney Wildflower Nursery West for nearly 20 years. She is a qualified horticulturalist, as well as an enthusiastic bushcarer. She now lives in inner-city Sydney, where her small back garden has only one sunny…