View source for Murnong

{{Short description|A tuber used in Australian Aboriginal cuisine}}
{{use dmy dates|date=January 2023}}
{{use Australian English|date=January 2023}}
The '''murnong''' or '''yam daisy''' is any of the plants ''[[Microseris walteri]]'', ''[[Microseris lanceolata]]'' and ''[[Microseris scapigera]]'', which are an important food source for many [[Aboriginal Australians|Aboriginal peoples]] in southern parts of Australia. Murnong is a [[Woiwurrung]] word for the plant, used by the [[Wurundjeri]] people and possibly other clans of the [[Kulin nation]]. They are called by a variety of names in the many different [[Aboriginal Australian languages]], and occur in many [[oral tradition]]s as part of [[Dreamtime]] stories.
The tubers were often dug out with [[digging stick]]s and cooked before eating. They were widespread and deliberately cultivated by Aboriginal peoples in some areas, but the hoofed animals introduced by early settlers to Australia destroyed vast areas of habitat, leading to calamitous results for the Indigenous people. The shortage of food led to Aboriginal people stealing food from settlers, in a cycle of violence known as the [[Australian frontier wars]]. The township of [[Myrniong]] in [[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]]  was named after the murnong.
In the 21st century there has been a revival and recultivation of the plant, and an honouring of it in art.
==History==
The roots of the murnong plants were consumed in large quantities by [[Aboriginal Victorians|Aboriginal people]] in the [[colony of Victoria]] until the 1840s, when European colonists began using the murnong crop lands for sheep farming. <ref name="gott">{{cite journal |last1=Gott |first1=Beth |title=Murnong—Microseris scapigera: a study of a staple food of Victorian Aborigines |journal=Australian Aboriginal Studies |date=1983 |volume=2 |url=http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=287863328982808;res=IELAPA?}}</ref>
== Botanical naming ==
The binomial names of the three species ''[[Microseris walteri]]'', ''[[Microseris lanceolata]]'' and ''[[Microseris scapigera]]'' are often misidentified, because they were classified under different names until they were clarified in 2016. Murnong is often described as growing a sweet tuber, but this identifies ''Microseris walteri'' rather than the other two plants, which have bitter roots. <ref name="walsh">{{cite journal |last1=Walsh |first1=Neville |title=A name for Murnong (Microseris: Asteraceae: Cichorioideae) |journal=Muelleria |date=2016 |volume=34 |url=https://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/documents/MuelleriaVol_34_-_p63_Walsh.pdf}}</ref>
For more than 30 years Murnong was named as ''Microseris'' sp. or ''Microseris lanceolata'' or ''Microseris scapigera''. [[Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria]] botanist Neville Walsh clarified the botanical name of ''Microseris walteri'' in 2016 and defined the differences in the three species in the table below.<ref name="walsh"/>
== Oral storytelling ==
Murnong tubers are included in a [[The Dreaming|Dreamtime]] story about [[Crow (Australian Aboriginal mythology)|Crow's role in bringing fire to mankind]]. According to a story told by the [[Wurundjeri]] people, in the Dreamtime fire had been a jealously-guarded secret of the seven [[Karatgurk]] women who lived by the [[Yarra River]] where Melbourne now stands. These women carried live coals on the ends of their [[digging stick]]s, allowing them to cook murnong yams. One day Crow found a cooked yam and, finding it tastier than the raw vegetables he had been eating, decided he would cook his food from then on. However, the Karatgurk women refused to share their fire with him and Crow resolved to trick them into giving it up. The story continues and the crow steals the yam, but ends up creating a bushfire.<ref name=Mudrooroo1994>{{cite book | author=Mudrooroo  | title =Aboriginal mythology: An A-Z spanning the history of the Australian Aboriginal people from the earliest legends to the present day  | publisher = Thorsons  | year = 1994  | location = London  | pages = 35–36  | isbn = 978-1-85538-306-7}}</ref><ref name=howitt1904>{{cite wikisource|chapter=Chapter 8|wslink=Native Tribes of South-East Australia|plaintitle=Native Tribes of South-East Australia|last=Howitt|first=Alfred William|year=1904|publisher=|page=456|wspage=|scan=}}</ref>
In a Dreamtime story, the [[Wotjobaluk people]] say that the sun was a woman who, when she went to dig for murnong yams, left her little son in the west. Wandering round the edge of the earth, she came back over the other side. When she died she continued to do this.<ref name=howitt1904 />
==Indigenous cultivation==
The edible tuberous roots of murnong plants were once a vitally important source of food for [[Aboriginal Australian]] people in the southern parts of Australia. Indigenous women would dig for roots with a [[yam stick]] (a [[Gunditjmara]] term for [[digging stick]]<ref>{{cite web | last=Bissland | first=Emily | title=Gunditjmara stone tools found in University collection sparks art exhibition and hopes of repatriation  | website=ABC News |publisher= [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] | date=23 January 2022 | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-01-23/gunditjmara-tools-leonhard-adam-collection-sparks-exhibition/100659198 | access-date=24 January 2022}}</ref>)   and carry the roots away in a [[dillybag]] or rush basket. <ref name="gott" /><ref name="gottconran">{{Cite book | last1=Gott | first1=Beth | last2=Conran | first2=John | year=1991 | title=Victorian Koorie plants : some plants used by Victorian Koories for food, fibre, medicines and implements | publisher=Hamilton and Western District Museum. Yangennanock Women's Group, Aboriginal Keeping Place | isbn=978-0-646-03846-9 }}</ref>
{{Blockquote
| text = 'Today the native women were spread out over the plain as far as I could see them, collecting punimim, murrnong, a privilege they would not be permitted except under my protection. I inspected their bags and baskets on their return and each had a load as much as they could carry. They burn the grass, the better to see those roots but this burning is a fault charged against them by squatters.'
| source = [[George Augustus Robinson]] (24 July 1841)<ref>{{cite book |first1=Ian D |last1=Clark |title=The Journals of George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate, Volume Two: 1 October 1840 - 31 August 1841|publisher=Heritage Matters |location=Beaconsfield |year=1998 |page=326 }}</ref>}}
European settler Issac Batey described the cultivation of murnong by Aboriginal people on a sloping ridge of land owned by [[Sunbury Asylum]], in [[Sunbury, Victoria]]. He called the cultivation "accidental gardening", while paradoxically suggesting it was an intentional method to increase food supply.
{{Blockquote
| text = 'The soil [on the ridge] is a rich basaltic clay, evidently well fitted for the production of myrnongs. On the spot are numerous mounds with short spaces between each, and as all these are at right angles to the ridge's slope it is conclusive evidence that they were the work of human hands extending over a long series of years. This uprooting of the soil, to apply the best term, was accidental gardening, still it is reasonable to assume that the aboriginals were quite aware of the fact that turning the earth over in search of yams, instead of diminishing that form of food supply, would have a tendency to increase it.'
| source = Issac Batey (between 1840–1900)<ref>{{cite book |first1=David |last1=Frankel |title=Batey nd, Unpublished manuscripts, Royal Historical Society of Victoria, Melbourne in 'An Account of Aboriginal use of the yam-daisy' |publisher=The Artefact |year=1982 |pages=43–45 }}</ref>}}
== Cooking methods ==
In western Victoria, baskets were used in the cooking. After being washed, tubers were put into a rush basket, which was placed on an [[earth oven]], called mirrn'yong mounds. Tubers would roast, half melting into a sweet dark syrup.<ref name="gott" />
{{Blockquote
| text = 'Ovens are made outside the dwellings by digging holes in the ground, plastering them with mud, and keeping a fire in them till quite hot, then withdrawing the embers and lining the holes with wet grass. The flesh, fish, or roots are put into baskets, which are placed in the oven and covered with more wet grass, gravel, hot stones, and earth, and kept covered till they are cooked. This is done in the evening; and, when cooking is in common—which is generally the case when many families live together—each family comes next morning and removes its basket of food for breakfast.'
| source = [[James Dawson (activist)|James Dawson]] (1881)<ref name="dawson1881" />}}
Another cooking technique uses heated clay elements placed above and below the edible roots. The steam and moisture helps reduce the drying and shrinking of the vegetables.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Re-Creating an Aboriginal Earth Oven with Clayey Heating Elements: Experimental Archaeology and Paleodietary Implications |journal=Experimental Archaeology |date=2015 |url=https://exarc.net/ark:/88735/10352 |first1=Maurizio |last1=Campanelli |first2=Jane |last2=Muir |first3=Alice |last3=Mora |first4=Daniel |last4=Clarke |first5=Darren |last5=Griffin
|issue=EXARC Journal Issue 2018/2 }}</ref>
== Early records of murnong consumption ==
In 1803, convict  [[William Buckley (convict)|William Buckley]] escaped from the settlement at Sullivan's Bay near [[Sorrento, Victoria]], then lived among the [[Wathaurong people]] at the mouth of Thompson Creek. An important source of food for Buckley 'was a particular kind of root the natives call Murning — in shape, and size, and flavour, very much resembling the radish.'<ref name="Morgan">{{cite book |last1=Morgan |first1=John |title=The life and adventures of William Buckley |date=1852 |publisher=ANU Press |location=Canberra |url=https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/115045/2/b12742697.pdf}}</ref>
Port Phillip settler James Malcolm testified in front of the NSW parliament on the condition of Indigenous people in 1845. Malcolm said, 'There is a nutritious root which [the Indigenous people] eat and are fond of; and that, I think, has greatly diminished, from the grazing of sheep and cattle over the land, because I have not seen so many of the flowers of it in the spring as I used to see. It bears a beautiful yellow flower. The native name of this root is "murnong".'<ref name="Malcolm">{{cite book |last1=Malcolm |first1=James |title=NSW Legislative Council Select Committee |date=11 September 1845 |url=https://hunterlivinghistories.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/1845-condition-of-aborigines-transcript-final.pdf |location=New South Wales}}</ref>
Malcolm referenced Buckley in his description of murnong. He said, 'It is rather agreeable to the taste as a native article of food, and when you squeeze it, there is a sort of milk or creamy substance which comes out of it. I have eaten it many a time, and a man named Buckley who lived among the natives for thirty years before the settlement was formed, tells me, that a man may live on the root for weeks together; and that he has dug them up in great numbers for food.'<ref name="Malcolm"/>
[[File:Yam diggers at Indented Head Victoria 1835.jpg|thumb|[[Wathaurong people|Wathaurong]] women dig for tambourn roots (murnong) at [[Indented Head]]. Drawn by [[John Helder Wedge]] in 1835.<ref name="todd"/> ]]
In 1835, the Tasmanian colonist [[John Batman]] set up his base camp for the land speculation company [[Port Phillip Association]] at Indented Head. While he returned to [[Tasmania]] to collect his family and additional provisions, the members left at the Indented Head camp were running low on imported food supplies, so they began to eat murnong. The servant William Todd wrote, 'We have commenced eating roots the same as the natives do.'<ref>{{cite book |last1=Boyce |first1=James |title=1835: the Founding of Melbourne and the Conquest of Australia |date=2011 |publisher=Black Inc. |location=Melbourne |page=95}}</ref>
Surveyor and explorer [[Thomas Mitchell (explorer)|Thomas Mitchell]] came across a community of Aboriginal people who cultivated and harvested murnong tubers with specialised tools on the plains around the [[Hopkins River]] on 17 September 1835. Mitchell was wary and when 40 of them approached his camp, he ordered his men to charge at them.<ref name="mitchell">{{cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Thomas |title=Journal of an Expedition to the rivers Darling and Murray in the year 1836 in Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia |date=1838 |publisher=T. & W. Boone |location=London |url=https://archive.org/details/b29335966_0002/page/n15/mode/2up}}</ref>
== Sheep and cattle grazing ==
The introduction of cattle, sheep and goats by immigrating early–colonialist Europeans led to the near extinction of murnong, with calamitous results for Indigenous communities who depended upon murnong for a large part of their food.<ref name="gott" /> Mitchell had noted that 'the cattle are very fond of the leaves of this plant, and seem to thrive upon it'.<ref name="mitchell" /> Sheep were more destructive, since the murnong was most abundant on the plains and open forests where sheep were introduced.<ref name="gott" />
Within five years of the founding of Melbourne, murnong had disappeared from the surrounding area. In 1839, [[Ngurelban people|Ngurelban]] man Moonin-Moonin said, 'There were no ''param'' or ''tarook'' at [[Port Phillip]] ... too many ''jumbuck'' (sheep) and ''bulgana'' (bullocks, cattle) plenty eat it myrnyong—all gone myrnyong.'<ref name="gott" /> The [[Taungurung people]] had been pushed off their land and the supply of murnong and other plant foods had greatly diminished as cattle and sheep stock increased on the land. The people were so hungry that they would 'part with anything for a trifle to eat or drink'.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Dredge |first1=James |title=Diary (1839–1843) MSS 16-2, 16-3. |location=State Library of Victoria}}</ref> On the northern plains of Victoria, [[Edward Micklethwaite Curr|Edward M Curr]] wrote: 'Several thousand sheep not only learnt to root up these vegetables with their noses, but they for the most part lived on them for the first year, after which the root began gradually to get scarce.'<ref>{{cite wikisource|title=The Australian Race|last=Curr|first=Edward M|year=1886|publisher=|page=240|wspage=|scan=}}</ref>
{{Blockquote
| text = '[[James Munro (sealer)|Mr Munro]] said there were millions of murnong or yam, all over the plain and that the kangaroos were so abundant that they came up to the door of their tents on one occasion and knocked down a child. Emue were also abundant and came near their tents. This was only 18 months ago; now there are none seen. The sheep drive them away. Yet, this is proof that the natives have been deprived of a large portion of their support and subsistence. Mr Munro reported that [[Frederick Taylor (colonist)|Taylor]], the notorious murderer of blacks, had absconded in an American whaler at Portland Bay. He had killed a whole tribe and the bodies were dragged together will bullock chains and burnt.'
| source =[[George Augustus Robinson]] (22 January 1840)<ref name="clark-1998">{{cite book |first1=Ian D |last1=Clark |title=The Journals of George Augustus Robinson, Chief Protector, Port Phillip Aboriginal Protectorate, Volume One: 1 January 1839 - 30 September 1840|publisher=Heritage Matters |location=Beaconsfield |year=1998 |page=156}}</ref>}}
== Colonial conflicts ==
{{further |Australian frontier wars}}
When British settlers moved onto the [[Hawkesbury River]] in 1794, they constructed farms by removing the yams and planting Indian corn ([[maize]]). The [[Dharug]] people saw the corn on their land as a replacement carbohydrate of the yams and when the corn ripened, they carried it away. Settlers fired shots on the Dharug people to drive them away, and a series of raids by Aboriginal people was followed by settlers killing seven or eight of them. The [[Battle of Richmond Hill]] occurred in May 1795, where 62 [[New South Wales Corps]] soldiers went to the Aboriginal camps at Richmond Hill at night, killing seven or eight people there.<ref name="Karskens">{{cite book |last1=Karskens |first1=Grace |author-link1=Grace Karskens |title=People of the River: Lost worlds of early Australia |date=2020 |publisher=Allen&Unwin |isbn=9781760292232 |location=Sydney |page=131}}</ref><ref name="collins">{{cite wikisource|title=An account of the English colony in New South Wales |last=Collins|first=David |year=1798|publisher= |page=348|wspage=|scan=}}</ref> [[Kate Grenville]]'s 2005 historical novel ''[[The Secret River]]'' popularised the idea that the yams at Hawkesbury River were murnong, known by the Darug people as midyini, but academics suggest the yam was a different plant.{{cn|date=June 2022}}
Other conflicts arose when Aboriginal people took potatoes from settler farms, on areas previously used for growing murnong. In April 1838, [[Tullamareena]] and Jin Jin were arrested for stealing potatoes from John Gardiner's property in [[Hawthorn, Victoria|Hawthorn]]. They were placed in Melbourne's first gaol, but they escaped by setting fire to the thatched roof.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Clark |first1=Ian D |last2=Kostanski |first2=Laura M |title=An Indigenous History of Stonnington: A Report to the City of Stonnington |date=30 June 2006 |publisher=School of Business, University of Ballarat |location=Ballarat |url=https://www.stonnington.vic.gov.au/files/assets/public/about/community/history/indigenous-history-full-report.pdf}}</ref>  In January 1840, Jaga Jaga (Jacky Jacky) and around 50 [[Wurundjeri]] men stopped at James Anderson's station in [[Warrandyte]] and rooted up potatoes at the farm using [[digging stick]]s during the night. Anderson confronted them angrily, but Jaga Jaga's men also possessed rifles and a purposely shot past Anderson's ear. They left to Yaring, which led to the [[Battle of Yering]], but no-one was killed.<ref name="ellender">Isabel Ellender and Peter Christiansen, pp65-67 ''People of the Merri Merri. The Wurundjeri in Colonial Days'', Merri Creek Management Committee, 2001 {{ISBN|0-9577728-0-7}}</ref>
== Contemporary revival and conservation ==
During the 1980s, [[Monash University]] academic [[Margaret Beth Gott|Beth Gott]] documented [[bush tucker|Australian Indigenous foods]] with a focus on murnong and also curated the Aboriginal Educational Garden at the university to grow plants that were used by Indigenous people.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.monash.edu/science/schools/biological-sciences/staff/beth-gott |title=Beth Gott - Science |publisher=Monash University |access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref> Gott published her research in the papers ''Ecology of Root Use by the Aborigines of Southern Australia'' in 1982<ref>{{cite journal | url = http://www.jstor.org/stable/40386580 | first1 =Beth |last1 = Gott| journal = Archaeology in Oceania | publisher = Wiley | title = Ecology of Root Use by the Aborigines of Southern Australia | volume = 17 | number = 1 |date = 1982| pages = 59–67 | doi = 10.1002/j.1834-4453.1982.tb00039.x | jstor = 40386580 }} </ref> and ''Murnong—Microseris scapigera: a study of a staple food of Victorian Aborigines'' in the Australian Aboriginal Studies journal in 1983.<ref name="gott" /> She also published information about murnong in the books ''Victorian Koorie Plants'' with John Conran in 1991 and ''Koorie plants, Koorie people'' with Nelly Zola in 1992.{{cn|date=October 2023}}
In 2005, the Merri and Edgars Creek Confluence Restoration Group (MECCARG) formed at [[Merri Creek]] in [[Coburg North, Victoria]] and later renamed as Merri Murnong, with the aim of rejuvenating indigenous cultural landscape including dwindling stocks of murnong, using Gott's research. With the support of [[Wurundjeri]] elders, the group holds an annual Murnong Festival to harvest and cook murnong roots, then conducts a [[cultural burning]].{{cn|date=October 2023}}
Author [[Bruce Pascoe]] helped to form the Indigenous group Gurandgi Munjie in 2011 'aimed not only to recover First Peoples’ traditional foods and culture, but also to become a unique food-led form of reconciliation where the work of Indigenous growers could provide healthy produce for high-end and commercial chefs and restaurants.'<ref name="SBS-food"> {{cite web
| url =https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2021/07/01/native-superfood-8-times-nutritious-potato-and-tastes-sweet-coconut
| title =This native superfood is 8 times as nutritious as potato and tastes as sweet as coconut
| last =Verass
| first =Sophie
| date =11 July 2021
| website =SBS.com.au
| publisher =SBS
| access-date =31 October 2021
| quote = Originally wiped out by pasturing animals, the murnong is now making a comeback that could upstage the common potato. }}</ref>
Murnong was prominently featured in Pascoe's 2014 book ''[[Dark Emu|Dark Emu: Black Seeds: Agriculture or Accident?]]'', which looked at the diaries of European settlers in Australia to understand Indigenous foods and farming methods. A second edition of the book was published in 2018 and became the number two bestselling nonfiction book in Australia for 2019<ref>{{cite web |title=2019 Australian bestsellers: 'Boy Swallows Universe' and 'The Barefoot Investor' top charts |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2020/02/11/145562/2019-australian-bestsellers-boy-swallows-universe-and-the-barefoot-investor-top-charts/ |website=Books+Publishing |access-date=6 February 2022}}</ref> and number four in the same chart for 2020,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.booksandpublishing.com.au/articles/2021/03/04/163301/bestselling-australian-adult-titles-of-2020/ |title=Bestselling Australian adult titles 2020 |publisher=Books+Publishing |access-date=6 February 2022 |date=4 March 2021}}</ref> which led to a greater awareness of murnong within Australia.
Seeds of murnong are now commercially available and the plant is stocked in many nurseries in Australia.<ref name= "gardeningAngus">{{cite web
| url =https://www.gardeningwithangus.com.au/product/yam-daisy-seed/
| title =Yam Daisy (Microseris scapigera) Seed
| last =Stewart
| first =Angus
| author-link = Angus Stewart
| date =
| website =GardeningWithAngus.com.au
| publisher =GardeningWithAngus.com.au
| access-date =31 October 2021
| quote = }}</ref>
== Artwork ==
In 2019, the [[National Gallery of Victoria]] commissioned a large sculpture called 'In Absence' by [[Yhonnie Scarce]] and Melbourne architecture studio Edition Office. The artwork questions the absence of murnong in Victoria, which were once plentiful prior to colonisation. The artwork consists of wooden tower rises upwards from a surrounding field of [[kangaroo grass]], murnong and a path of crushed Victorian basalt. The 9 metre high by 10 metre wide cylinder is clad in a dark-stained Tasmanian hardwood. A narrow vertical aperture, slicing the tall cylinder open, bisects the tower leaving a void and creating a passage into two curved chambers. Inside each, hundreds of hand-blown, glossy, black glass murnong populate the walls and glitter in shafts of sunlight. <ref>{{cite web |last1=McEoin |first1=Ewan |title=In Absence, Yhonnie Scarce and Edition Office |work=2019 NGV Architecture Commission |url=https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/essay/in-absence-yhonnie-scarce-and-edition-office-2019-ngv-architecture-commission/ |access-date=31 January 2021}}</ref>
== Indigenous names of murnong ==
Murnong is a [[Woiwurrung]] word for the plant, used by the [[Wurundjeri]] people and possibly other clans of the [[Kulin nation]]. It has many other names in other [[Aboriginal Australian languages]].<ref name="gott" />
Below is a list of the Indigenous names, language groups and locations where the name was recorded.
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|dharaban}}. [[Ngunnawal]] (ACT, NSW)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|ngampa}}. [[Kaurna]] (Adelaide, SA) <ref>{{cite web | last=Skujins | first=Angela | title=Harvesting a 'cultural miracle' | website=[[CityMag]] | date=17 January 2023 | url=https://citymag.indaily.com.au/happening/harvesting-a-cultural-miracle/ | access-date=22 January 2023}}</ref>
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|keerang}}, ({{transl|mis|italic=no|yuwatch}} for cooked root). [[Gunditjmara|Peek Whuurong]] (Port Fairy, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|kool-an-gur}}. Wannin (Wannon, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|maiela}}. [[Bangerang]] (Echuca, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|maiyilla}}.<ref name="matthews1902" /> [[Yorta Yorta]] (Echuca, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|maranong}}, {{transl|mis|italic=no|murning}}, {{transl|mis|italic=no|tumbuurn}} (daisy),<ref name="dawson1881">{{cite book | last1=Dawson |first1=James | title=Australian Aborigines : the languages and customs of several tribes of Aborigines in the western district of Victoria | year=1881 | location=Melbourne | publisher=George Robertson | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-52770478 | id=nla.obj-52770478 | page=30 }}</ref> {{transl|mis|italic=no|tambourn}} (daisy).<ref name="todd">{{cite book |last1=Wedge |first1=John Helder |title=The Todd Journal: Andrew alias Willam Todd (John Batman's recorder) and his Indented Head Journal |date=1989 |publisher=Geelong Historical Society |location=Geelong |isbn=0909877084 |page=70}}</ref> [[Wathawurrung]], Kulin (Trawalla and Geelong, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|mar-o-ngire, moor-na}}.<ref name="smyth1878" /> [[Booandik]] (South East, SA)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|midyini}}<ref name="midyini">{{cite web |title=Dharug and Dharawal Resources |url=https://www.dharug.dalang.com.au/plugin_wiki/page/introduction |access-date=21 February 2021}}</ref> {{transl|mis|italic=no|midin}}.<ref>{{Cite journal | title = Dharruk language and vocabulary | last = Mathews | first = R. H. | author-link = Robert Hamilton Mathews | journal = [[Royal Society of New South Wales|Proceedings of the Royal Society of New South Wales]]| via = [[Biodiversity Heritage Library|BHL]] | year = 1901 | volume = 35 | pages = 155–160 | url = https://biodiversitylibrary.org/page/41734515 }}</ref> [[Dharug]] (Sydney)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|meerwan}}. [[Wemba Wemba]] (Lake Bogal, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|me-wan}},<ref name="matthews1908">{{Citation | first1=Mathews | last1=Robert Hamilton | title=Vocabulary of the Ngarrugu tribe N.S.W. | year=1908  | location=Sydney | publisher=Royal Society of New South Wales | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-756524402 | id=nla.obj-756524402 | access-date=7 February 2021  | via=Trove}}</ref> {{transl|mis|italic=no|njamang}}. [[Ngarigo]] (alpine, NSW and Gippsland, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|mingar}} (Mudgee, NSW)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|mlang}},<ref name="matthews1902">{{Cite book | title=The Aboriginal languages of Victoria | first1=Mathews | last1=Robert Hamilton | year=1902 |page=35 | publisher=Royal Society of New South Wales | language=English | url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-755878752}}</ref> {{transl|mis|italic=no|dalu-mlarng}} (where {{transl|mis|italic=no|dalu}} means little),<ref name="smyth1878" /> {{transl|mis|italic=no|moit-bar-dyul}}, {{transl|mis|italic=no|loumbric}}. [[Gunai language|Gunai/Kurnai]] (Gippsland, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|mo-i-yool}}. [[Ngoorialum]] (Colbinabbin, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|mo-ner, moo-nar}}. [[Dja Dja Wurrung]] (East of Grampians, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|moonang}} (Bacchus Marsh, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|moonya}},<ref name="matthews1902" /> {{transl|mis|italic=no|munja}}, {{transl|mis|italic=no|munya}}, {{transl|mis|italic=no|bam-munya}}. [[Wergaia language|Wergaia]] (Lake Albacutya, Lake Hindmarsh, The Mallee, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|mooranong}} (Hamilton, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|murnong, mernong, mirr-n'yong, myrnong}}. [[Woiwurrung]], Kulin (Melbourne) <ref name="smyth1878">{{cite book |last1=Smyth |first1=Robert Brough |title=The Aborigines of Victoria |date=1878 |publisher=J Ferres, gov't printer |location=Melbourne |url=https://archive.org/details/aboriginesofvict01smyt}}</ref>
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|muurang}}, ({{transl|mis|italic=no|yuwatch}} for cooked root). [[Kuurn Kopan Noot language|Kuurn Kopan Noot]] (North of Port Fairy, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|myrnong}}, also meaning 'finger'. [[Boonwurrung language|Boonwurrung]], Kulin (Melbourne) <ref name="bunce">{{Citation | last1=Bunce | first1=Daniel | last2=Threlkeld | first2=L. E. | title=Language of the Aborigines of the colony of Victoria, and other Australian districts | year=1856 | location=Melbourne | publisher=Slater, Williams, and Hodgson  | url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-387673206 | id=nla.obj-387673206 | access-date=2 January 2023 | via=Trove
}} </ref>
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|ngamko}}.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Moorhouse |first1=Matthew |title=A vocabulary of the Murray River language from Wellington on the Murray |date=1846 |publisher=Andrew Murray |url=https://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/dspace/handle/2440/24872}}</ref> [[Thura-Yura languages|Thura-Yura]] (Lower Murray, SA)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|ngarridyu}}. [[Wiradjuri]] (Murrumbidgee, NSW) <ref>{{cite web |last1=Williams |first1=Alice |last2=Sides |first2=Tim |title=Wiradjuri Plant Use in the Murrumbidgee Catchment |url=https://archive.lls.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/495261/archive-wiradjuri-plant-use.pdf |website=NSW Local Land Services |access-date=6 February 2021}}</ref>
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|pun-nin}}. [[Waverang]] (West of Mt Cole, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|pun-yin}} (root). {{transl|mis|italic=no|taluum/taloom}} (cooked root). [[Djabwurrung language|Djabwurrung]], Kulin (Mt Rouse, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|tao}}.<ref name="mitchell" /> (Lachlan River, Regent Lake, Bogan River, NSW)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|thabor}}. [[Watiwati]] (Tyntynder, Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|wayang}}.<ref>{{Citation | last1=Jones |first1=Caroline | title=Darkinyung grammar and dictionary : revitalising a language from historical sources |year=2008 | publication-date=2008 | publisher=Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative | isbn=978-0-9775351-9-4}}</ref> [[Darkinyung people|Darkinyung]] (Hunter region, NSW)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|wuleli}} (root). [[Taungurung]], Kulin (Healesville,  Vic)
* {{transl|mis|italic=no|yerat}}. (Lake Condah, Vic) <ref name="smyth1878" />
The [[Wotjobaluk people]] used a counting system from one to 15 when communicating with other clans via [[message stick]]s and used {{transl|mis|italic=no|munya}}, the word for murnong or yam, to count fingers from one to five as part of this system.
One: {{transl|mis|italic=no|giti-munya}} (little finger), two: {{transl|mis|italic=no|gaiup-munya}} (ring finger), three: {{transl|mis|italic=no|marung-munya}}, (middle finger), four: {{transl|mis|italic=no|yollop-yollop-munya}} (index finger) and five: {{transl|mis|italic=no|bap-munya}} (thumb).<ref>{{cite wikisource|chapter=Chapter 11|wslink=Native Tribes of South-East Australia|plaintitle=Native Tribes of South-East Australia|last=Howitt|first=Alfred William|year=1904|publisher=|page=723|wspage=|scan=}}</ref>
The township of [[Myrniong]], Victoria was named after the murnong.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article254714121 |title=Myrniong District |newspaper=[[Melton Express]] |issue=1091 |location=Victoria, Australia |date=4 December 1926 |accessdate=24 January 2022 |page=3 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> The area around the [[You Yangs]] was called ''Morong-morongoo'' after the murnong that was abundant there in the past.<ref>{{cite news |title=Native Names |url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/112862761 |access-date=11 August 2020 |agency=The Ballarat Star |date=8 June 1866}}</ref>
==Table showing the three species==
{| class="wikitable"
! Feature
! ''[[Microseris walteri]]''
! ''[[Microseris lanceolata]]''
! ''[[Microseris scapigera]]''
|-
| '''Roots'''
| single fleshy root expanding to a solitary, napiform to narrow-ellipsoid or narrow-ovoid, annually replaced tuber
| several fleshy roots, cylindrical to long-tapered, branching just below ground-level
| several cylindrical or long-tapered, usually branched shortly below leaves
|-
| '''Images of roots'''
| [[Image:Mwalteri6.jpg|thumb|left|M. walteri tuber roots]]
| [[Image:Mlanceolata5.jpg|thumb|left|M. lanceolata tapered roots]]
| [[Image:Mscapigera4.jpg|thumb|left|M. scapigera tapered roots]]
|-
| '''Fruit (Capsela)'''
| usually less than 7mm long
| usually less than 7mm long
| mostly 7–10 mm long
|-
| '''Images of seeds'''
| [[Image:MwalteriSeed.jpg|thumb|left|Microseris walteri seed]]
| [[Image:MlanceolataSeed.jpg|thumb|left|Microseris lanceolata seed]]
| [[Image:MscapigeraSeed.jpg|thumb|left|Microseris scapigera seed]]
|-
| '''Pappus bristles'''
| c. 10 mm long, 0.5–1.3mm wide at base
| 10–20 mm long, c. 0.3–0.5 mm wide at base
| 30–66 mm long
|-
| '''Images of flowers
| [[Image:Mwalteri8.jpg|thumb|left|M. walteri flower, approx 4cm wide]]
| [[Image:Mlanceolata3.jpg|thumb|left|M. lanceolata flower, approx 5cm wide]]
| [[Image:Mscapigera1.jpg|thumb|left|M. scapigera flower, approx 2cm wide]]
|-
| '''Joined petals (Ligule)'''
| usually more than 15mm long
| usually more than 15mm long
| up to 12mm long
|-
| '''Origin'''
| lowlands of temperate southern WA, SA, NSW, ACT, Victoria and Tasmania
| rarely on basalt soils; alpine and subalpine NSW, ACT and Victoria
| mostly from basalt plains of western Victoria and elevated sites in Tasmania
|-
| '''Taste of roots'''
| sweet-tasting, both raw and cooked
| bitter, slightly fibrous and not particularly palatable
| slightly fibrous, and slightly, but tolerably bitter
|-
|}
==References==
{{Reflist|refs=
}}
[[Category:Microseris|lanceolata]]
[[Category:Asterales of Australia]]
[[Category:Flora of Victoria (state)]]
[[Category:Root vegetables]]
[[Category:Plants described in 1840]]
[[Category:Plant common names]]