We meet Professor Kingsley Dixon, AO, a botanist whose devotion to science has transformed our understanding of native plant cultivation. Subscribe 🔔 ab.co/GA-subscribe
He lives on a 160-acre garden and bush block south of Perth, in the Darling Range. This is the passion project of Professor Dixon, an internationally recognised botanist who revolutionised native plant cultivation and is now cultivating a botanic garden of his own. Kingsley, his husband Lionel, and their dog, Rufus, have been working on this historic garden for almost 10 years, lovingly restoring the 12 acres of formal gardens, amassing collections of native and exotic plants, and observing the unique wet temperate forest surrounding it.  
Kingsley has decades of important contributions to plant science in Australia, and created the Science and Research department at Kings Park, which he helmed for 32 years. Most notably, he led the team that discovered it was not heat or ash from a bushfire that stimulated the germination of so many Australian plants, but chemicals found in the smoke. This year, he was recognised for his contribution to Australian plant science, receiving an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO). He was also Western Australia's Scientist of the Year in 2016, and was featured in David Attenborough’s BBC Private Life of Plants documentary series.  
Kingsley grew up in Bayswater, in the eastern suburbs of Perth. ‘My family loved gardening but we were really working class. My dad was a tractor driver but he collected water lilies, we were always building lily ponds!’ His family were largely unaware of native plants though, as were many people at the time.
"My first experience working with native plants was in the summer holidays of 1965/1966. I was 12 years old and had nothing to do, so I would sit in the car with my father while he worked as a bulldozer driver for the rubbish dump. Every day, we drove by a sign for Wyemando Native Plant Nursery, and I finally built up the courage to ask him to drop me off there in the morning and pick me up on his way home from work. I walked into this nursery and asked if I could help out."
The two sisters who ran it, Nancy and Susan Harper, begrudgingly obliged, and his mind was opened to the wonderful world of native plant cultivation.
"Working there exposed me to extraordinary diversity that impressed me so much. I wanted to find magical places that they talked about seeing and collecting plants." This obsession motivated him through his studies.
Along with a team of colleagues from Kings Park and the Universities, he undertook an 11-year study to identify the specific chemical in smoke that is responsible for germination. More than 4000 chemicals in smoke were analysed. This led to the discovery in 2004 of a new class of molecules that they named karrikinolides, after the Noongar word for smoke, ‘Kerrick’. Karrikinolides were the first new class of plant growth regulation hormones discovered in 30 years, and are now used in the common horticultural product, smokewater. "Few other single ecological findings have had such a profound impact across so many areas of Australian ecology.’"
Kingsley has also led significant research in the study and cultivation of native terrestrial orchids. He was one of the scientists who studied the link between orchids and their mycorrhizal fungi, which are crucial to their growth. In the field as well, he was the first to describe at least 3 species of orchid, and Caleana dixonii, the Sandplain Duck Orchid, was first identified by and later named after him.  
His research now largely focuses on rebuilding landscapes, such as mine site rehabilitation.
At home, he is also excited to have grown one of Western Australia’s rarest plants, a carnivorous aquatic species called the Waterwheel Plant that traps small insects and animals in the water.
Filmed on Pindjarup Country in Waroona, WA
___________________________________________
Gardening Australia is an ABC TV program providing gardening know-how and inspiration. Presented by Australia's leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia is a valuable resource to all gardeners through the television program, the magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content.
Watch more: iview.abc.net.a...
Facebook: / gardeningaustralia
Instagram: / gardeningaustralia
Web: www.abc.net.au/...
___________________________________________
This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation KZfaq channel. Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC's Online Conditions of Use www.abc.net.au/... (Section 3).