''Haemodorum coccineum'' (bunyagutjagutja,Bula’bula Arts Aboriginal Corporation (2013) at http://www.bulabula-arts.com/Site/our-art/aboriginal-fibre-art.html. Accessed 2 September 2013 bloodroot,Wrigley, J.W. and Fagg, M. 2007 Australian Native Plants, Reed New Holland, Sydney, Australia menang, scarlet bloodroot,Atlas of Living Australia website at http://bie.ala.org.au/search?q=haemodorum+coccineum. Accessed 2 September 2013 red rootSmith, N., 2007, Native Plants for Top End Gardens, Greening Australia (NT) Ltd, Darwin, Australia) is a flowering plant in the same family as

kangaroo paw Kangaroo paw is the common name for a number of species, in two genera of the family Haemodoraceae, that are native to the south-west of Western Australia. These rhizomatous perennial plants are noted for their unique bird-attracting flowers. T ...

Description

A perennial herbBrock, J., 1988 Top End Native Plants, John Brock, Darwin, Australia to one meter high. Although it is not a

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

, it has a grass-like appearance, with strap-like, narrow, leathery leaves arising from the base of the plant. Flowering usually occurs between November and March, during the

Top End The Top End of Australia's Northern Territory is a geographical region encompassing the northernmost section of the Northern Territory, which aside from the Cape York Peninsula is the northernmost part of the Australian continent. It covers a ra ...

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

, however flowers have been observed as early as October and as late as May. The flowers are deep-red or orange red and occur in dense clusters on long stiff stalks, which also arise from the base of the plant. Fruit develop between November and March, and can linger until May. The fruit are red to black, fleshy capsules with three lobes. The mature fruit release a red-purple juice when crushed.

Distribution and habitat

Found in the

of the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory ...

,The Council of Heads of Australasian Herbaria (2013) Australia’s Virtual Herbarium. http://avh.ala.org.au/occurrences/search?taxa=Haemodorum+coccineum#tab_mapView ccessed 2 September 2013/ref>

Northern Queensland North Queensland or the Northern Region is the northern part of the Australian state of Queensland that lies just south of Far North Queensland. Queensland is a massive state, larger than many countries, and its tropical northern part has been ...

and

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. Occurs in

open woodland Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' (YF ...

habitats on gravelly or shallow lateritic soils and

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

Uses

Dyes

Indigenous Australians use this plant to make red, brown and purple dyes for coloring plant fibres.Artback Northern Territory Arts Touring (2007) ''Recoil Education Kit'' at http://www.artbacknt.com.au/images/arts/recoil/pdf/teachersnotes.pdf. Accessed 2 September 2013 The bulbous red root is chopped or crushed and boiled in water to release the red-brown dyes, while the purple shades are made from ''H. coccineum'' fruit.

Fibres such as the stripped leaves of ''

Pandanus spiralis ''Pandanus spiralis'' is native to northern Australia. It is commonly called common screwpine, iidool, pandanus palm, screw pine, screw palm or spring pandanus. It is neither a true palm, nor a pine. Distribution ''Pandanus spiralis'' occur ...

'' or the new leaves of ''

Livistona humilis ''Livistona humilis'', the sand palm, is an Australian plant species of the family Arecaceae. It is a small, slender palm, growing to about 7 m tall and 5–8 cm dbh. It has 8 to 15 fan-shaped leaves, 30–50 cm long with petiole ...

'' are added to the dye-bath, and later the colored fibre is used to make items such as baskets (''Pandanus''), string bags (''Livistona'') and fibre sculptures.

Other uses

Suitable as a bedding or edging plant in native gardens.

The fruits can be used in floral arrangements.

Some sources report Indigenous Australians used the plant to treat snake-bite, and the dry stalks were used as fire-sticks.

Propagation and cultivation

''Haemodorum coccineum'' can be propagated from seed.

Vegetative propagation Vegetative reproduction (also known as vegetative propagation, vegetative multiplication or cloning) is any form of asexual reproduction occurring in plants in which a new plant grows from a fragment or cutting of the parent plant or speci ...

can be achieved by dividing the bulbous root. Plants prefer a well-drained sandy or gravelly soil and full sun. In the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

the plant will usually die back, leaving the underground rootstock to regenerate later in the year.

References

External links

Wildflowers of the Darwin Region

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5638244 coccineum Flora of the Northern Territory Plant dyes Flora of Queensland Haemodoraceae