2018 Roundup

The last job of the year, 29th December - monitoring of our 2 Small Milkwort (SM) Plots in the Kara Kara National Park. Both plots are very dry and show signs of incursions by wallabies and kangaroos- scrapes, hip hollows, pruning and droppings. The larger plot had 58 spikes ( we believe that each rootstock puts up multiple stems and it is hard to decide where each plant starts and ends). There were only 7 flowering spikes in contrast to 24 last year; the spikes were very small and the flowers miserable! Most plants were less than 5cm tall.

On a brighter note, the Eutaxia microphylla and Templetonia stenophylla are doing very well- both are members of the pea family and are very palatable to browsers and grazers so the protection offered by our fence has proved its worth there. Leafy Templetonia- T. stenophylla flowers and leaves

Common Eutaxia- E. microphylla

The second plot, also known as the "Small Small Milkwort Plot" is also having problems with wallabies- the Peach Heath looked as if a mower had been over it and ditto the Small Milkwort. Only 1 flower spike out of 48 plants was found. A new colony of SM was found in 2016 and is persisting - 7 stems but no flowering spikes. It is likely that more SM is out there but the smallness of the plants, and near-impossibility of seeing them unless they are flowering makes this plant difficult to find.

Summer, grass-seeds, mosquitoes and heat all combine to make searching for it quite a task. Monitoring data for this project will soon be on our website. The Yellow Gums in both plots have been flowering and are now getting ready to shed their bark- the colours are astounding.

Bell Rock Beauties - Spring Blog #2

Shake off your winter miseries and take a walk up to Bell Rock, just on the outskirts of town (take Wycheproof Rd/Hopetoun St then L into Butcher St and head north!)

Wear solid walking shoes as the ground is really rough.

Flowering now, although reduced because of the dry conditions our endemic Goldfield Boronia(Boronia anemonifolia ssp. aurifodina)

and some beautiful examples of Bendigo Waxflower (Philotheca verrucosa) on the north west slope below the Rock.

See the verrucosities(warts!) along the leaves and sprawling stems.

Who Needs Roses ?

For several years now I have tried to photograph this tiny plant out on a buckshot gravel ridge in the Kara Kara National Park.

A small patch of these 4-5mm high plants is adjacent to one of our conservation plots.

I thought it would be easy to identify- just get a shot or two of the flowers and we would be away! The first year, I missed the flowers- a few tiny dried-up dark-red bits on one plant showed up on the computer screen. The next year, 2016,a wet year, the plants disappeared and White-winged Choughs seemed to be the culprits; beak-shaped holes were everywhere. 2017 came along and I had a good choice of plants to snap when I realised that I needed a supermacro function on the camera. Not good enough- a Panasonic Lumix shot on macro and blown up on the computer.Not enough detail and overexposed.

The use of a digital microscope showed a hairy, cobwebby tube sprouting 5 dark red, 4 or 5 petalled flowers.

So this year, after getting a camera with a super macro function I tried again.

2018 would have to be one of our driest years in the last 4 decades and the ground is bare in many places.

Chough holes are everywhere, grasses are chewed down to their roots and there are few plants of any sort about.

My little mystery is reduced to a few scattered plants on the south-east facing slope amongst Yellow Gums (Euc. leucoxylon). Even through the camera lens it is very difficult to see if there are any flowers so it is a case of point and shoot... and hope, otherwise it takes several trips to get enough shots with the desired features. Here is the first photo taken 26 Aug 2018 with an old Konica Minolta DiMAGE 3- it has great telephoto capability and 2 macro settings- a treasure.

This is the plant with the flower assembly forming in the middle, covered with cobwebby hairs

Flowering today, 9th August, the greeny-white tubes with hairy cobwebs topped with the dark-red of the "petals" makes these flowers nearly impossible to see with the naked eye. Each tubular flower would be 2-3 mm in length.

So, very nice, but what is it? A clue. Common Bow Flower- Millotia tenuifolia, which also grows in the same area.

My bet is Millotia perpusilla- Tiny Bow Flower. It is listed in Beauglehole's Vascular Plant List for our region- North Central. At no more than 5mm tall, the name seems apt.