…most people who visit Margaret River – frequent visitors included – have never set foot in, laid eyes on, or paddled a canoe, in some of the area’s choicest places.
One CommentCategory: Western Australia
Most – around 80% – of southwestern Australia’s flower species are endemic.
Many naturally only occur in very particular, small portions of WA’s southwest.
Almost all are extraordinary.
Some are very obviously beautiful and/or highly unusual.
Others – this one, for instance – only reveal their singularity if you stop walking, get your head down to where the flower is, and look closely.
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When in full bloom, yesterday and today’s featured species lives up to its common name, but on one side only.
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Photo (copyright Doug Spencer) shows a much-loved, petite and uniquely southwest Australian flowering plant at 4.05 pm on 21 September 2020.
Probably, its flower would have “opened for business” on 22 September.
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In 37 years of visits to Albany (on Western Australia’s south coast) we had failed to achieve a key ambition: to experience a major storm there.
A few days ago, nature finally obliged; the image shows Lowlands Beach at 3. 54 pm on Sunday 20 September 2020.
Joseph Tawadros provided this post’s suitably tempestuous music.
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…at least if you are a Kangaroo Paw, seeking effective pollinators,
All Kangaroo Paw species primarily rely on birds; for them, bees are “useless”.
Kangaroo Paws are not alone in relying on vertebrate pollinators; in this respect, Australia’s southwest is the world leader.
And many West Australian plants that do rely on insect pollinators are “liars” – plants pretending to be “receptive” insects!
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…but bees are of little or no use to this – or any other – member of the Kangaroo Paw family!
A future post, coming soon, will explain why.
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The featured image shows Caladenia latifolia – the Pink Fairy.
If you are in southern Australia (Tasmania included), within one hundred kilometres of the Indian or Southern Oceans, and have access to somewhere bushy and sandy, chances are excellent that you can see this species in flower, right now…or very soon.
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Anthropomorphic captions almost always lie about the animals they purport to describe!
This juvenile Australian Wood Duck was simply preening, as birds do.
This behaviour has precisely nothing to do with egregious self-regard.
However, the “water as mirror” circumstance does lead me to one of my favourite pianists, delivering a sublime rendition – coughers, notwithstanding – of Claude Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau.
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Spring has now arrived, effectively, so Kings Park will become progressively more wonderful over the next several weeks…but winter was also splendid.
The featured image, above, shows Rose mallee leaves, backlit by late afternoon sun on June 19.
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