Margarets Pages - My Australia series

AUSTRALIA .. Bush/Wildflowers

Australia has an abundance of bush and wildflowers with only a few shown here.  I will put in a few links to other sites with detail.   If you like flowers and the garden - enjoy!

MENZIES BANKSIA is just one of 50 species of this native tree or shrub, named after the botanist Sir Joseph Banks, who collected the first specimens of the plant when he arrived in Botany Bay with Captain Cook in 1770.

SPHERE BANKSIA has a more rounded head of bright yellow flowers. MEISNERS BANKSIA ,showing 2 stages of the flowers development (on right)

Three delicate fringed petals give the COMMON FRINGE LILY its name.  It flowers in spring and summer and is a common sight on grassy heathlands and sandstone country all over Australia.

GOLDEN PENNANTS turn the Mallee scrublands in Victoria a rich golden yellow when flowering in spring and summer. Rush-like stems grow to about 30 cm (12 inch) high and this plants likes the dry desert areas of Victoria and South Australia.

The CHOCOLATE LILY has a sweet chocolate-like perfume when flowering in spring.  The leaves look like grass and it grows in temperate areas of Australia.

BEAN CAPER AIZOON flowers in spring and summer on a short evergreen undershrub that likes dry conditions in arid shrublands of most Australian states.

An attractive paper-like PINK EVERLASTING which appears annually on short stout stems in sandy soils of Western Australia.  There are also white and red varieties. A nice wildflower site to check out is    www.evolve.net.au/natives/

TRIGGER PLANT has a spring-like motion that throws pollen on to a visiting bee or other pollinator.  Mostly found in highland areas fo Queensland and New South Wales.

The ROCK LILY is the best known group of orchids that can cling to rocks or hang from trees.  Lives in damp coastal areas of New South Wales & Queensland.

This species or WARATAH grows only in New South Wales and is the State's floral emblem.  Aboriginals gavethe flower its common name, meaning "seen from afar" for the blaze of colour it creates on hillsides in spring.  Some detail is on my native plant site.

STURTS DESERT PEA is one of the first flowersto bloom in the desert after rain.  It is the official emblem for the state of South Australia.   (above)

CLAWFLOWER is an apt name for this tiny mauve native flower which grows on a low spreading shrub.  It thrives in fairly swampy conditions, mostly in Western Australia.

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updated  9 May 2009