In fact; Eremophila comes from the Greek 'eremos', which is a desert, and
'phil-', which means 'loving', or 'being fond of'. So, it means a plant or bird
which loves the desert. Is that applicable to the plant?
Paul Van Gasse
Kruibeke, Belgium
-----Original Message-----
From: Timothy Nye Dolby [SMTP:
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 1999 2:04 AM
To: Trevor Hampel;
Subject: Re: birding-aus Plants and birds
> My wife is an avid grower of Australian native plants. She also has more
> than a passing interest in birds. Yesterday as we had lunch in our sun
> room, we were delighted to have 9 New Holland Honeyeaters giving one
> particular plant a thorough going over for their lunch.
> The plant was an Eremophila metallica, a low shrubby spreading plant
> covering some two square metres and no more than 50 cm high. The
> resident Singing Honeyeaters, Spiny Cheeked Honeyeaters and Red
> Wattlebirds are also frequent visitors to this plant, though these are
> somewhat more genteel eaters than the enthusiastic New Hollands.
Just on a side note - the plant family Eremophila shares
its name with a group of Larks - such as Eremophila
alpestris (Horned Lark) and Eremophila bilopha (Temminck's
Lark).
Also Eremophila glabra, or the 'emu bush', is particularly
attractive to birds.
Eremophilla (as far as I can work out) is a reference to
a 'hermit', or to the 'recluse' - so presumably both birds
and plants were considered hard to find?
Tim
__________________________
Tim Dolby
Product Manager
RMIT Publishing - Informit
RMIT University (03) 9341 3271
http://www.rmitpublishing.com.au
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