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Tag: wildflowers

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#18 in series)

Published December 28, 2023 by Pelidoug

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#18 in series)

 

 

I think that the featured image’s “bee” is a bee, and also a member of one of the bigger of Australia’s many native bee species.

At 2.15 pm on 30 October 2023 the sun had been shining brightly for six hours or more, so it is probably safe to assume that I was photographing a “working bee”.

However, s/he just might have been a late-awakening “sleeping bee”; some native bees shelter inside flowers that “close” overnight, and whenever else there is an absence of bright sunlight and warmth.

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October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#17 in series)

Published December 24, 2023 by Pelidoug

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#17 in series)

 

This post’s six-legged hero is not a Christmas beetle, and the flower which s/he is targeting (and, thereby, probably pollinating) is one of several related “devils”.

These handicaps notwithstanding, “handsome beetle + star-shaped flower head” yields a “Christmassy” image…however accidentally!

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October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#16 in series)

Published December 22, 2023 by Pelidoug

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#16 in series)

 

 

Until now, every episode in this series has featured a “local” hero.

In most cases, the relevant flowering plant has been (and will be, in the remaining few episodes) one that naturally occurs only in some particular parts of southwest Western Australia.

Today’s exception is an interloper from the Mediterranean basin.

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October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#15 in series)

Published December 20, 2023 by Pelidoug

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#15 in series)

 

This post’s photos were all taken on 30 October 2023, when the sun was high in an unclouded West Australian sky.

Each picture looks more-or-less straight down at the harshly-lit ground in so-called “northern Jarrah forest”, circa 60 kilometres southeast of Perth.

Much of this forest/woodland (this bit included) is in reality definitely-not-virgin, mixed forest/woodland, typically co-dominated by jarrah and marri trees, or by wandoo.

Even within a small, walkable area – as is the case here – the apparent “richness” or “poverty” of the forest floor is hugely variable, depending on precisely where one is standing and on what is going on at the particular time, within any particular year.

”Exactly the same place” can appear “utterly unlike itself”, from one time to another.

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October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#14 in series, with musical bonus & Australian tour alert)

Published December 19, 2023 by Pelidoug

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#14 in series, with musical bonus & Australian tour alert)

 

 

 

One of the nigh-infinite pleasures of walking in southwestern Australian forest/woodland/bush:

once “attuned”, you begin to notice that the “forest floor” – when viewed at or near ground level, up close – often looks like a multi-layered, uncommonly-colourful “forest”, in its own right.

read moreOctober 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#14 in series, with musical bonus & Australian tour alert)
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October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#10 in series)

Published December 14, 2023 by Pelidoug

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#10 in series)

 

I am almost certain that today’s hero is a fellow member of the genus Patersonia, but not the same species as those in #7 through #9 in this series.

To me, it remains a UFO – an unknown flowering organism.

If you can positively identify it, I’d be glad to be enlightened, and would then update this post.

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October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#9 in series)

Published December 12, 2023 by Pelidoug

October 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#9 in series)

 

 

This post features this series’ closest views of “purple flags”…with a gnat included, at no extra cost.

Not all “flags” are purple, but the flowers of most members of the Patersonia genus incline to purple. (the exceptions incline to yellow or white)

Patersonia are members of the iris family; most species are endemic to Australia, and the majority are WA-endemic.

read moreOctober 30 2023: Darling Range flora, “up close” (#9 in series)
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