You are looking at a “succulent” which is highly prized by gardeners, worldwide.
Very probably, this wild, uncultivated one is an example of Cotyledon orbiculata, commonly known as “pig’s ear”.
Comments closedTag: flora
Some Namib-dwellers – plants and animals – look extremely tough, “hard-shelled”, “brutal”.
Others, however, have a surprisingly “delicate” appearance.
I have no idea of even the common name of the pictured example.
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This post and the next two in this series are devoted to striking examples of plants that have evolved/adapted to survive in the least-rainy part of the Namib Desert.
The featured image’s stark centre of attention is (I am almost sure) a particularly hardy member of the geranium family.
It is probably one of the “Sarcocaulons” – members of what was formerly the generally-recognised genus Sarcocaulon.
Since 1996 these plants are usually numbered as members of the genus Monsonia.
One species – which may or may not be the one pictured above – contains a highly flammable resin which persists even when the plant is “dead”…or “dead”-ish.
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If it had presented itself to us a few days earlier, the “unanswerable question” would have qualified for the “quirky moments” series.
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(see immediately-preceding post for human context)
Pictured is one of an enormous number of water lilies (not lotus) then blooming, pink, on the edges of Vembanad Lake and its backwaters.
”Pests” to rice-growers in and around Kumarakon, they have in recent years become tourism “gold”.
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…and – certain prejudices and misinformation notwithstanding – neither is a noxious pest in southwestern Western Australia.
The South African is a flowering plant.
The FIFO is a fly.
Flies deserve rather more credit for their beneficial activities than most human Australians realise.
Not every South African plant “runs riot” and/or becomes a “noxious weed” when/if it “succeeds” on Australian soil.
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16 October 2022 was – even by Perth standards – a particularly benign Spring day.
All photos in this post involved a long lens peeking over North Fremantle residents’ front fences, into gardens of highly diverse persuasions; the “unkempt” and the “manicured” proved equally alluring.
The two first images were taken from Stirling Highway’s western footpath; I suggest you zoom in/enlarge – the Hibiscus’s stamen is especially worth a closer view.
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As Pelican Yoga regulars already know, I generally prefer wild places, wild animals and plants, untamed, “in the wild”/ au naturel.
That said, I would never wish to forgo the pleasures afforded by exotic plants, as cultivated in both “Botanic” and domestic gardens.
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Lion’s teeth, wind-riders, and a bad reputation….
I am referring to members of Taraxacum – a large genus of flowering plants. which most Australians regard as weeds and/or as highly invasive pests.
They are generally known as dandelions; Australian has some native species, but the ones so very familiar to most of us are indeed “alien invaders”.
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Nuytsia Floribunda is generally known as the Western Australian Christmas tree.
In southwest WA (its only home range) most people simply call it a “Christmas tree”.
Enormously more colourful and much more bizarre than any “traditional” Christmas tree, it is usually in full bloom at Christmas.
The world’s largest member of the mistletoe family is hemi-parasitic, rather than merely parasitic; Nuytsia (the single member of its own genus) does photosynthesize, and it has prodigiously long roots.
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