About one hundred years ago Australian botanists who realised the value of Old Man Saltbush had noted its general decline in the wild. The following is a passage written in 1894 warns readers of an approaching problem concerning Old Man Saltbush:

"This is one of the plants whose value, as a fodder plant, it would not be easy to exaggerate. Its advantages are that it is nutritious and it yields an enormous quantity of feed in a short time. It seeds enormously and cuttings may readily propagate it. It has been so appreciated that it is getting scarce. No one in Australia disputes its value, but it is desirable, occasionally, to remind our people of the worth of our native vegetation. If we are not careful, there are some native plants (of which this may be one) that we shall have to import from other countries. It is hoped that another season may not be allowed to pass without a special effort being made to replant this valuable Saltbush".

Mr. J.H. Maiden, Director of the Botanical Gardens, April 1894

How prophetic was this message in 1897? Today in the 21st century, we purchase the improved ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush seed from a South African supplier for very sound reasoning that is worth explaining.

South African researches at about the same time, one hundred years ago, also recognised the worth of Australian Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex nummularia), and collected seed from a region in New South Wales.

This seed was taken back to South Africa where Old Man Saltbush was used as stock fodder and helped with drought alleviation in South Africa for some forty years. In this time the South African graziers noticed that their stock preferred some individual plants over others and the animals chose to feed from these more favoured plants. These more palatable saltbush plants tended to decline within the stands and the lesser palatable plants tended to persist.

Another feature of plants grown from seed is genetic variation. Within a stand grown from seed collected directly from wild sources many shapes and sizes in leaves and bushes occur across the population, some are tall and strong, some are much shorter and weak and most display characteristic between the two.

About sixty years ago South African plant researchers identified a need to investigate these assorted characteristics of Old Man Saltbush. Primary selection and breeding was for increased leaf palatability and increased productivity with bigger leaves and bigger plants. A team of researchers lead by Mr Gerhard C. de Kock in Cape Province began working with these criteria and we now benefit from their results.

They carefully watched the stock choose the plants that they preferred to graze; researchers identified these plants and left them to produce seed. New plantations were grown with the seed collected from the favoured, palatable plants at the same time keeping those with the bigger growth characteristics as well. The whole watching and plant identified process was repeated until the desired make up of the new population was sound. It can be imagined just how laborious and time consuming this process was. After many, many years the result is an improved variety of Old Man Saltbush (Atriplex nummularia). This cultivar (meaning cultivated variety) was given the name ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush in honour of Mr de Kock, the leading researcher in the project.

‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush grows a greater abundance of feed and is much more palatable than the plants that grow from seeds collected from wild sources. Leaves from this South African variety have been measured up to 75mm across compared to the original plants of about 2Omm.

Leaves and stems on ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush – 10 months old

Today farmers would not dream of growing wheat, barley, corn or cotton from seed collected directly from wild sources. The commercial benefits from plant breeding and research cannot be discounted; therefore the very same concepts apply to Old Man Saltbush too, the improvements made to the ‘de Kock’ variety cannot be discounted completely.

The “de Kock” cultivar of Old Man Saltbush has been available in Australia since the mid 1980’s. Some confusion exists in Australia today about this improved variety and this requires clarification; it is the aim of this document to help with this problem.

Seedlings grown from ‘de Kock’ Old man saltbush are grown from seed because it is significantly quicker, easier and more cost effective than by cuttings or tissue culture. ‘de Kock” Old Man Saltbush seed is only sourced from the original stands in South Africa. These are the superior plants that have been researched and selected to remove the less desirable plants from the population. These plants have been left to cross pollinate with each other and they are the most likely to produce seed for commercial plantations of ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush with the increased palatability and production. Genetics is still a factor in the process, so each generation of seed collected and grown from subsequent generations of ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush is less and less likely to stay true to the selection process’ characteristics.

In short, the more distantly the seedlings are related to the original ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush stands in South Africa, the more likely the resulting stand of Old Man Saltbush will revert back to the old characteristics of the plants in the wild.

We believe that ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush only refers to the first generation of seed originating directly from the stands of ‘de Kock’ Old Man Saltbush in South Africa. South Africa is the only source of the first generation Old Man Saltbush seed. It is worth inquiring from of a seedling producer or seed supplier the history of their seed source, so this problem and confusion may be avoided in the future.