Crowea saligna

Common Name: Willow Leaved Crowea

Transcript of Aunty Fran Bodkin explaining the uses of Crowea:

The Crowea exalata. Now the Crowea is a very, very beautiful little plant, it’s a shy little plant and it grows in dappled shade but it has a wonderful use and it’s when the men of the Southern Highlands and the Sydney area, all that area, gave this flower to the women they wanted to marry.

If the women rejected the love, she would have to go back. She’d have to give the flower back. But if she accepted it, she had to accompany him back to that same bush and she would pick some of the flowers and give it back to the man.

Which I think is very romantic! And if at anytime either partner was dissatisfied they had to go back to the same bush and do the opposite to what they did before; give the flower back. But this time, the sneaky thing is of nature, is that the plant only lives four years, so you’ve only got four years to make up your mind whether you want to go through with it or not. Don’t tell anybody that though, because we don’t want our men to know. That’s why, another thing too, that’s why the men say “oh I’ve got four or five wives”, but they never ask the wives how many husbands they’ve had. It’s an easy divorce, it’s a peaceful divorce.