Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
In most cases, serotiny – retaining the seeds in a hardy capsule or cone, which opens in response to a particular “trigger” – is an adaptation to ensure a plant species’ survival in a fire-prone environment.
Serotinous plants exists in both the Northern and the Southern Hemisphere, but Australia is home to the overwhelming majority – WA most especially.
More than 75% of the world’s known serotinous plants are endemic to WA, mostly to southwest WA.
Comments closedPhoto credit/time/place details are as per previous post.
As the headline says….
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Long before the arrival of humans – who have been part of “the local equation” for many thousands of years – fire was already a key element in Waychinicup’s ecology.
This post’s featured individual belongs to one of the serotinous plant species; their seeds are stored in hard capsules, which open after a fire.
A fire may well kill the individual, but the species is highly “fire tolerant”.
Probably, all or most of the Hakea species in Waychinicup are in fact fire-dependent.
Comments closedThe inlet – pictured above – is, of course, Waychinicup National Park’s signature feature.
“The amazing view across its exquisite inlet” is, however, just one of this superb park’s many notable aspects.
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The day was fine, definitely not stormy.
However, a decidedly brisk breeze had blown for a few hours, so the ocean had some oomph when it met Western Australia’s southern edge on the afternoon of February 7, 2022.
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Unlike Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” – a deservedly celebrated, but much-misunderstood song – this post is 100% free of irony and angst.
The photo (copyright Doug Spencer) was taken at 1.54 pm on 15 March 2021.
The inlet’s shore is surely one of the more sublime picnic lunch spots, anywhere, and the inlet is just part of one of our favourite wild places.
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This post is a teaser: each subject of its four photographs will soon be explored further, in its own particular post.
All photos copyright Doug Spencer, taken in February 2022.
The first two images were both taken just a few steps outside of the house in which we stayed in Walpole.
Above, feeding, (& probably pollinating the Grevillea) is a New Holland Honeyeater Phylidonyris novaehollandiae.
Immediately below, flaunting, is a male Splendid Fairy-wren Malurus splendens.
One CommentAs Australia’s Right-“thinking” “pundits”/commentators/zealots “know”, if this “scaly, self-indulgent millennial” continues to bolt down avocados, it will never achieve home ownership!
They may, however, be pleased to know that no member of this species has ever sipped a latte…although some “pundits” surely will be disappointed to learn that its name does not salute a monarch/y.
Comments closedAustralia’s most widely-read author of literary fiction honeymooned here.
Not many years later – in 1984, I think – my beloved and I also “discovered” this glorious, singular place.
Few people know of its existence, but thousands of years ago Waychinicup had already been named.
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