Library

The plant library.

A growing, illustrated reference of plants worth knowing in Southeast Queensland: what earns its place, what quietly supports a system, and which weeds are worth watching for. It’s the same library every Stillfoot design draws on. 31 entries so far, with more added over time.

Food & fruit

Banana

Musa

Sub-canopy

A genuinely high-yield, fast-cycling food crop for a warm, sheltered, well-watered spot — often used as a "banana circle" nutrient-cycling hub, planted around a central compost/greywater pit that feeds the thirsty clump directly.

Borage

Borago officinalis

Herbaceous

A genuine dynamic accumulator, drawing minerals up into its leaves; excellent bee and pollinator plant; a classic companion for strawberries and tomatoes; self-seeds to fill gaps in a guild without being planted deliberately each season.

Choko

Sechium edule

Vine

Extremely productive for very little input once established, and a fast summer shade or screen over a structure.

Common Fig

Ficus carica

Sub-canopy / small to medium tree

A genuinely low-input, high-reward fruit tree — extremely resilient once established, tolerant of poor soil, and capable of two harvests a year in a suitable climate.

Common Passionfruit

Passiflora edulis

Climbing vine

A fast, productive climbing food crop for an existing fence or trellis — genuinely good use of vertical space that would otherwise be unproductive.

Lemongrass

Cymbopogon citratus

Herbaceous

Its dense clumping habit makes it a genuinely useful living barrier or edge planting, and its strong scent is thought to help mask companion crops from some pests.

Macadamia

Macadamia tetraphylla

Canopy tree

A genuinely high-value native nut crop — one of very few native Australian food plants to become a global commercial commodity, worth real investment in establishment care given how long-lived and eventually productive it becomes.

Moringa

Moringa oleifera

Small tree

One of the fastest ways to produce nutrient-dense edible biomass, coppices well for repeated leaf harvest, and its nitrogen-rich leaf drop makes excellent mulch.

Mulberry

Morus alba

Sub-canopy / small to medium tree

A fast, resilient, high-yield fruit tree that also tolerates hard pruning — a good choice where a smaller, easily-netted or hand-pickable tree is wanted rather than a tall canopy specimen.

Queensland Arrowroot

Canna edulis

Herbaceous

A genuinely useful biomass producer, historically grown as a staple starch crop and stock fodder in Queensland, with large leaves that make excellent chop-and-drop mulch.

Sweet Potato

Ipomoea batatas

Herbaceous groundcover-vine

An extremely effective living mulch and groundcover that also produces a genuine staple food crop, vigorous enough to outcompete most weeds once established.

Turmeric

Curcuma longa

Herbaceous understorey

A genuinely productive, shade-tolerant understorey layer for a food forest system.

Support & soil

Clumping Bamboo

Varies by species (commonly

Canopy / tall screen (a very large grass)

An excellent fast screen or windbreak, and the canes are a genuinely useful renewable building material — poles, stakes, trellis material, all grown on-site rather than bought in.

Common Comfrey

Symphytum officinale

Herbaceous

One of the classic permaculture dynamic accumulators — its deep taproot draws up potassium, phosphorus, and other minerals from the subsoil, concentrated in leaves that make excellent mulch, compost activator, or liquid feed ("comfrey tea").

Lucerne

Medicago sativa

Herbaceous

An excellent nitrogen fixer, and its deep taproot brings subsoil minerals up while helping break compacted ground — a classic chop-and-drop dynamic accumulator and fodder crop.

Perennial Peanut

Arachis pintoi

Herbaceous groundcover

An excellent living mulch and groundcover, a genuine nitrogen fixer, suppresses weeds, and tolerates mowing or light foot traffic well.

Pigeon Pea

Cajanus cajan

Shrub

A strong nitrogen fixer and fast biomass/mulch producer, functioning as a nurse plant or windbreak for younger, slower-establishing plantings while also being a genuinely productive food crop in its own right.

Tagasaste

Chamaecytisus palmensis

Small tree / large shrub

An excellent fast nitrogen fixer and windbreak or nurse-tree species.

White Clover

Trifolium repens

Herbaceous groundcover

Nitrogen fixation, living mulch, genuine soil-building groundcover.

Weeds & what to watch

Balloonplant

Gomphocarpus physocarpus

Shrub

A recognised monarch butterfly host plant, a genuine ecological value, though this has to be weighed against its toxicity and weed status on a property running or planning to run animals.