“Accidentally Christmassy” (#2 of 3)

In a “normal” year this 21.12.2020 post would be coming to you from right next door to South Australia’s Aldinga Scrub Conservation Park, where I took the photo on 21 December 2017.

Conifers mostly hail from the other hemisphere, but none of their “Christmassy” cones are lovelier than this Australian species’ “cones”.

We currently pine in vain for “Christmas on the Fleurieu Peninsula”, but Sheoaks are native to many Australian places, so no Australians need pine for pine cones.

Arguably, Sheoaks’ cones are more appropriate for Australian Christmas celebrations.

Click here to see three Aldinga Scrub posts, one of which reveals the precise identity of this post’s Sheoak.

And, in the spirit of precision, I ought confess that Sheoaks’ “cones” are really fruits, albeit fruits as “woody” as any pine’s cone.

Unlike those “boring” conifers, Sheoaks – Casuarinas and Allocasuarinas – are flowering plants.

Presumably, a feasting parrot accidentally made possible this post’s accidentally Christmassy image of “a fine balance”.

(if you have not yet read Rohinton Mistry’s A Fine Balance, your list of “greatest 20th century novels in English” is overdue for an update)