Natural splendour, real musics, wines, wordpower
According to the people who were already here for many thousands of years before “European settlement”, southwest Western Australia has six seasons.
Each is determined by what is actually happening, rather than by a calendar’s fixed dates.
Currently, in and around Perth, it is very evidently Djilba – the first of two “Spring” seasons.
One CommentSouthwest Western Australia’s flowering, feathered and furry members of the first two categories need each other, vitally.
Could their survival prospects have anything to do with the third category?
Comments closedMost mallee species are eucalypts, and more than half of Eucalyptus species are mallees.
Their generally modest height and oft-“untidy”/“shaggy” appearance blind some people to mallees’ beauty, their great diversity, and their oft-astonishing buds and flowers.
As with so many Australian species, the closer you look, the more spectacular, surprising and glorious they are.
One CommentMost – around 80% – of southwestern Australia’s flower species are endemic.
Many naturally only occur in very particular, small portions of WA’s southwest.
Almost all are extraordinary.
Some are very obviously beautiful and/or highly unusual.
Others – this one, for instance – only reveal their singularity if you stop walking, get your head down to where the flower is, and look closely.
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When in full bloom, yesterday and today’s featured species lives up to its common name, but on one side only.
Comments closed…at least if you are a Kangaroo Paw, seeking effective pollinators,
All Kangaroo Paw species primarily rely on birds; for them, bees are “useless”.
Kangaroo Paws are not alone in relying on vertebrate pollinators; in this respect, Australia’s southwest is the world leader.
And many West Australian plants that do rely on insect pollinators are “liars” – plants pretending to be “receptive” insects!
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…but bees are of little or no use to this – or any other – member of the Kangaroo Paw family!
A future post, coming soon, will explain why.
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The featured image shows Caladenia latifolia – the Pink Fairy.
If you are in southern Australia (Tasmania included), within one hundred kilometres of the Indian or Southern Oceans, and have access to somewhere bushy and sandy, chances are excellent that you can see this species in flower, right now…or very soon.
Comments closedSpring has now arrived, effectively, so Kings Park will become progressively more wonderful over the next several weeks…but winter was also splendid.
The featured image, above, shows Rose mallee leaves, backlit by late afternoon sun on June 19.
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Literally speaking, the middle of the road is usually dangerous, and soulless.
Metaphorically speaking, “M.O.R” signifies music, visual art or literature that is bland, dull, pedestrian.
This post’s actual middle of a road is, however, “safe” only in the desirable sense, and its musical content is highly creative, very playful.
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