Blackboy or Grass tree?

Bigfella78 · Post by **Bigfella78** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 8:54 am

Has the world gone too PC?
Which and why?

Post by **yorky** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:00 am

I've always known them as a Black Boy. However with the correct name being a Grass Tree I have nothing against that either.

observer · Post by **observer** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 9:49 am

Have heard a message to 6ar that went along the lines of "First alarm scrub fire. Black boy on fire. Lit by person of similiar description"

Magnus · Post by **Magnus** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:59 am

Correct name is Xanthorrea Australis, anything else is a common name, but if you choose to call them Black boys, you may risk offending indigenous Australians.

Post by **Nafenn** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:00 am

i've always known them as blackboys

Post by **Zebedee** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:08 pm

I've known them as blackboys also from when I first arrived in Australia as a kid. The name is now imprinted into my brain and I suspect that it's what I'll continue to call them.

However I do note that "grass tree" is becoming more common as a name now.

written_ficton · Post by **written_ficton** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 12:44 pm

observer wrote:Have heard a message to 6ar that went along the lines of "First alarm scrub fire. Black boy on fire. Lit by person of similiar description"

Now my screen is pebble dashed with coffee...

Post by **auntys_eyes** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 3:15 pm

yorky wrote:I've always known them as a Black Boy. However with the correct name being a Grass Tree I have nothing against that either.

Whilst Xanthorrea Australis is the correct botanical name, the commonly accepted name for them is Western Australian Grass Tree, which has been abreviated simply to Grass Tree. Blackboy is of course the long established colloquial name that we all grew up with

dlcat1 · Post by **dlcat1** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 5:53 pm

X. australis is actually limited to a arc through mid NSW down the mountains and coast to western Victoria.

You are more likely to see X. gracilis or one of the other Xanthorrhoea sp. down in the Lower West, SW and Great Southern.

Just to confuse things with another piece of trivia, Kingia australis also looks very similar until it starts flowering. It was called Black Gin once upon a time as it was thought to be the female form of the grass tree.

Post by **robbage** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:03 pm

As far as I know, also known as a Balga (I believe the Aboriginal name for them)

Post by **Zebedee** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 6:45 pm

robbage wrote:As far as I know, also known as a Balga (I believe the Aboriginal name for them)

Yep, I'd also heard that "balga" was the Nyoongar term for the blackboy/grass-tree...

WPXZBP · Post by **WPXZBP** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 10:00 pm

Always been Xanthorrea preiseii to me.
http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=e ... CBwQsAQwAw

dlcat1 · Post by **dlcat1** » Thu Oct 22, 2009 11:17 pm

WPXZBP wrote:Always been Xanthorrea preiseii to me.
http://images.google.com.au/images?hl=e ... CBwQsAQwAw

Thankyou mate,

Who knew we had such a depth of closet botanists here

I love it

Have you seen the DEC florabase site? http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/search/a ... nthorrhoea

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