Shall we begin the week with a photographic bouquet of flowers sent by Jim Trice from Australia? His notes and IDs are indented:
I thought I’d send some plants for a change, old stuff from around 2011. The first three shots are from a “Naming Walk” in one of the Conservation Parks on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.
Pultenaea trifida, Kangaroo Island bush pea, Lathami Conservation Park:
Boronia coerulescens, Lathami Conservation Park. This shot suffers from some jpeg compression artefacts, but I still think it is a pretty flower.
A Calytrix or myrtle species, could be Calytrix glaberrima, the smooth fringe myrtle, Lathami Conservation Park. This one was labelled as the gland flower, Adenanthos macropodianus, which looks nothing like this.
Dianella revoluta: black anther flax lily. Very common in Eastern and Southern Australian sclerophyll, woodland and mallee forests. Sometimes grown as a garden plant. This is one of the specimens growing on the grounds of the cottage we stayed in at Vivonne Bay, KI.
The next shots are from, or near, the Belair National Park in the Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia.
Caladenia leptochila: the bayonet or soldier’s orchid. One of the spider orchids, and one of my favourites. It is also sometimes known as the thin lipped spider orchid. This one was found in roadside vegetation near Belair National Park. As you can tell from the background, these blend in well with their surroundings, and can be hard to spot. If I remember rightly, this flower was about 25mm, or about an inch, across. And about five minutes ago I discovered this is the shot that is used for the Wikipedia article on Caladenia leptochila, linking to my shot on Flickr. How ’bout that?
The next two are weed species in the Park.
Disa bracteata (syn. Monadenia bracteata), near the Lorikeet Loop Walk, Belair National Park. Each of those little flowers are about 3mm across. For some daft reason I used this as the background image for a bookmark, which explains the odd format. This plant is a nasty, invasive, pest. That’s unusual for an orchid.
Blue pimpernel, Anagallis sp. (Ann Prescott gives Anagallis arvensis). A pretty, introduced pest. There is also (surprise, surprise) a scarlet version of this flower. It is toxic, and can poison livestock if too much of it gets into their pastures. This one was growing just inside the southern boundary of the Park. The flower is about 8mm in diameter. The shot was taken with extension tubes and two diffused flashes.
Love the flora of South Australia.
Beautiful Flowers.
Yes beauty
Some wonderful color on a day where spring has not yet sprung!
Stunningly beautiful flowers that are quite the contrast to the snow and frost I woke up to this morning. Spring is a bit schizophrenic this year, with my frozen pansies, crocuses, and daffodils bravely resisting the chill while the natives continue to bunker down.
Thanks!
Autumn is a bit schizophrenic here to make up for it. 33 degrees C here today. 34 C tomorrow, and things like the local library closed because of a high bushfire danger alert.
Hope your flowers pull through.
Invasive orchids, who would have thought?
Really does show the “relativity of weeds”, though.
Most orchids have a hard time being invasive because they depend on mycorrhizal associations with specific fungi. I’ve got no idea how Disa bracteata gets around this need. But there are huge numbers of them scattered through the Park. I worry about them displacing native species.
Very nice! I also especially enjoy the descriptive commentary that enlivens the pictures.
Thanks Mark. I like to find out at least a bit about the things I photograph. And I’ve enjoyed others writing about their readers’ wildlife photos. Including yours. So I’m happy to share.
Womder if any pecksniffs would want you to cover up all those sex organs though.
Nice flowers wish could have one in my garden. I love Disa bracteata most.