Have grown Murnong in my garden and in large pots at home for a few years now (and given plants and seeds to a number of Aboriginal mobs - Taungurung, Wathaurong, Wurundjeri). The ones in pots have been true perennials & have flowered and fruited in the 2nd and sometimes 3rd years; those planted in the soil did not, so have only grown them in pots for last couple of years.

Beth Gott told me a couple of years ago that the Murnong in her bush food garden at Monash also acted like an annual and did not re-grow from the tubers in the 2nd year.

The cypsela (fruit) of the basalt plains Murnong (Microseris sp.1) are noticably different from other areas (Microseris sp.3) such as Creswick, Wallan-Romsey Rd and Monument Hill in Kilmore.

There was an fuel reduction/ecological burn on part of Monument Hill earlier this year and (surprise, surprise) in spring, there were Murnong in their hundreds in the burnt area, rather than the odd plant dotted through the reserve as previous. So reckon that periodic burning/biomass reduction would be ideally part of the management of Murnong reveg areas (as it is for full native grassland areas anyway).

Not sure what the response of Murnong has been in the grassy groundcover research project sites over the years of my colleague Paul Gibson-Roy at Melb University Burnley Campus but will ask him. John Delpratt at Burnley Campus has done lots of work on Murnong over the years and would be a good source of information, i suspect (if he hasn't retired by now?)

I have grown murnong for several years and planted numerous plants in my 18 yo indig bush garden. Many plants flower in their first season and fail to reappear. If conditions are favourable plants will flower again in the second year. In my foothills area (Lysterfield), many orchids, some sundews and murnong like open conditions which often occur at the base of mature/semi mature eucalypts where not much else will grow. In the ground, several plants close together are required for seed set whilst I usually maintain a box of plants in tubes for a year for seed collection (then these are planted out the second year). Like lilies and orchids, I let the tubes dry out over summer and moisten when Autumn turns. I find competition from other more vigorous plants is the biggest problem in maintaining the plants in the garden, hence their emergence after fire/fuel reduction.