On the afternoon of 26 August 2023 Shenton Bushland was already very colourful, although “peak Springtime flowering” was probably still a few weeks away.
None of this post’s flowers are hard to find at this time of year, providing you are in the right kind of place, within southwest Western Australia.
Shenton Bushland is one of several “right kinds of place” that are less than 20 minutes away from Perth’s CBD.
Wattles are spectacularly evident during winter-into-spring, as you can see, above.
Ditto Western Australia’s floral emblem, Anigozanthos manglesii:
On August 26 there was already no shortage of orchids; we saw more than a few donkeys, cowslips were abundant, and we saw some beautiful pink fairy orchids.
However, the annual “eruption” of spiders – the orchids, not arachnids – was still a forthcoming attraction.
Pictured below is the only spider orchid we saw that afternoon:
The above spider orchid was one more than we saw in Kings Park on 30 August.
By the time this post is published, however, “spiders” will likely abound in Kings Park, Shenton Park, Bold Park, Wireless Hill…and various other places that are readily accessible to anyone in Perth.
The same comment applies to a huge number of other spring-flowering plants; in this department, at least, Perth is likely the world’s leading city.
On a seemingly darker note, the image below shows the trunk of one of Shenton Bushland’s many mature jarrah trees.
August 26 was exactly 6 months after an “unplanned” fire had scorched the Bushland’s southeastern corner.
That fire – one of the year-to-date’s two “unplanned”, damaging fires – did kill some trees, and it also “opened the door” to yet more invasive weeds.
(weeding is an especially necessary and constantly challenging task in a “natural bushland” pocket that is surrounded by suburbia)
Happily, however, it looks like most of the scorched, mature jarrah trees – almost certainly including the one whose trunk you can see – are recovering quite well.
Fire notwithstanding, the above tree’s canopy has already substantially “re-greened”.
Shenton Bushland also has many so-called “grass trees”, Xanthorrhoea.
Local members of that fire-adapted/fire-dependent genus appear to be in rude good health; presumably, they relished the “unplanned fire event”