Plants of the Peninsula

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By David Day

‍We are so lucky to live on the Mornington Peninsula – one of the most biodiverse regions in Victoria that includes the following:

• more than 60 Ecological Vegetation Classes or EVCs, which are the way Victoria classifies its distinctive native vegetation types,  

• more than 700 species of indigenous plants, one fifth of all Victorian flora,

• more than 400 species of native animals,

• 30% of remnant native vegetation (i.e. before European settlement), and

• significant wetlands including the Western Port Ramsar site and Tootgarook Wetlands18 creek catchments totalling 440km of waterways.

‍In biodiversity maps, Shoreham forms part of what is called the Southern Coastline Zone. Geology is a major contributor to our environment. The Southern coastline is now heavily cleared and predominantly agriculture, consisting of exposed cliffs and slopes, with intertidal rocky shelves (which is what brings the birds.) It includes Buxton Bushland Reserve and Somers Foreshore Reserve, two of the best areas to observe what the landscape was like at the time of colonisation.

Learn more at the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council website, where you can explore the EVC of your street here. If you enter your street address an EVC classification will show. If you drill down on this you can obtain a description of the EVC, and also a list of plants common to this area, including trees, shrubs, grasses, ground covers, ferns, and climbers. What better way to return the area, in some small way, to how it once was?‍‍ ‍