Local Lilly Pilly tree, flowers, fruit

The local Lilly Pilly was known as Acmena smithii when I moved to Robertson. Unfortunately, it is now back with the difficult-to-spell Syzygium tribe, so it is now Syzygium smithii (though PlantNET does not seem to realise it).

The local plants normally have creamy white fruit, but some (few) have pale pinkish/purple fruit. None of the local plants have the strongly coloured Lilly Pilly fruit typical of most of the other members of that genus.

Here is a shot of a single tree, at my friends' property Cloud Farm. There is a large Eucalypt behind the Lilly Pilly. The dense, dark green leaves and white buds and flowers are the give-away.

Syzygium smithiitree at Cloud Farm

 Here are the flowers (taken in December 2011).

Syzygium smithii Buds and open flowers.
These small flowers show some structural similarity
to Eucalypt flowers.
But they lack the distinctive "cap" of Eucalypts.

Typical creamy-white fruit of the local Lilly Pilly plants
Fresh fruit (taken two days ago)
Syzygium smithiiThese fruit are on the same tree as the buds and flowers
But the photos are two years apart.
But the months are characteristic
December for flowering
Late April/May for fruiting.
There is just a bit of pinkish spotting on these fruit.

This tree, being overlooking the escarpment, and hence warmer than Robertson proper, fruits just a little earlier than the best stands of local Lilly Pilly trees on Fountaindale Road, and at Tony and Anna's place.

Leaves of Syzygium smithii

White-headed Pigeons back in Robbo

I wrote about the White-headed Pigeons (Columba leucomela)  (the first I had seen this season) on 19 March, when a flock of them suddenly turned up to feast on the fruit of some Privet bushes. Seeing a flock of these birds in Robertson is unusual.

This morning I saw a pair on the powerline outside my house.

White-headed pigeons
as seen from my back deck.

They are lovely birds, but although i have seen them here before, I am never sure what brings them here, as they are fruit eaters, rather than "seed" eaters. In other words, they do not walk around like Wonga Pigeons picking up dry seeds on the ground. But I have no mature, fruiting Lilly Pilllies at my property, so I am not sure what the attraction is for them.

But, heck, they are such beautiful birds, I am not complaining.