You can make seed balls using just about any type of seeds. We chose kangaroo grass for our workshop because of what we knew about its significance to Aboriginal farming practices and because its ability to ‘wiggle’ was very appealing to us.

Themedatriandra, commonly known as kangaroo grass, is a native perennial grass that grows widely across Australia. It produces spear-shaped seeds that are activated by water, either through increased humidity or when it rains. These hygroscopic seeds wiggle, wind and jump their way across the landscape in search of a suitable place to bury themselves and, ultimately, begin to grow.

Natasha Mansfield, 2018, CSIRO.

Kangaroo Grass is considered a keystone species across much of Australia, which means it plays a critical role in maintaining the structure of the ecosystems and affects many other organisms. It also can be a Polyploid, which means it has multiple sets of chromosomes, so it can adapt to climate change, for example in recombinant urban ecologies.

In addition to barley grass and Coopers clove, another plant referred to by early explorers is oat grass. ‘Today we refer to that grass as kangaroo grass and it is the mainstay of almost every ‘unimproved’ pasture in the country. In the past its seed would have been a boon to the Indigenous inhabitants.

Bruce Pascoe, Dark Emu, page 32

Our seed supplier was Nindethana.