Green Sense: The Aesthetics of Plants, Place and Language

Abstract

In the small town of Kojonup, Western Australia, a regional hub for the wool industry, on a winter afternoon in 2009, I decided to enquire about the local plants. Surprisingly, at the tourism office, my curiosity was greeted with a brusque reply: "The show hasn't started. The wildflowers aren't out yet. You won't see anything." Venturing into the small bush reserves around the town, my guide and I nevertheless uncovered a world of sensory immersion. Selecting nuts from the base of a quandong ('Santalum acuminatum'), we cracked open its convoluted outer shell to expose the crisp, white flesh reminiscent of macadamia. Despite it being the "off-season," the plants offered memorable moments of interaction. We scrambled across the highway to a marri tree ('Corymbia calophylla') to sample the medicinal kino, or gum resin, oozing from the bark. Closer to town, we spotted a plant with small cylindrical fruits. My guide told me coyly that varieties with white flowers are considered more effective than pharmaceutical drugs to combat male impotence. As the sun descended below the horizon, we crushed fragrant gum leaves in our hands and rubbed the resin along our forearms to assuage the sting of ant bites.