Greenhoods are flowering on Macquarie Pass

There were three species of Greenhoods flowering today on Macquarie Pass. One of them, the Maroonhood, or Pterostylis pedunculata, has been subject of some discussion on my colleague Mosura's blog: "The Nature of Tasmania". I will post photos of Pterostylis curta (the Blunt Greenhood) and Pt. hildae (the Rainforest Greenhood) tomorrow.

One of the issues discussed on Mosura's blog was the shape of the Labellum. PlantNET says: "Labellum ovate, 4–7 mm long, c 3 mm wide, dark red-brown, straight, apex obtuse, tip just visible through the front of the sinus in the set position". You can see what they mean in this image, below.

Duncan was right (of course) in what he said about the notched V tip of the labellum of the Trim Greenhood. His photo of that species is visible if you click here.

Here was a bud developing - of a Greenhood which at the time I could not identify. I now know it to be a bud of Pt. pedunculata (having waited a month for it to develop) .Here is an interesting (but non-typical) photo of the same bud, just half developed. The colour is clearly visible, even at that early stage. The long tip will split and open out on each side, to become the "ears" or "points".
Here is the same plant, fully open, today. As a matter of interest, it is exactly a month since I first photographed the bud at its first stage of the flower protruding through the leaf bract (on 10 August). This flower is growing in a dark Melaleuca thicket, in a damp creek-bed filled with deep leaf-litter from the Melaleuca trees. The tip of the Labellum is just visible. The yellow dot is the "pollinia" visible (in position) inside the column of the Orchid, which in Greenhoods is located far at the back of the "hood" or "Galea". The Labellum in Greenhoods is movement sensitive, and when it gets triggered, it snaps back, holding an insect in such a position that it gets the sticky pollen grains stuck to the insect. In this image, the tip of the labellum appears more pink than brown. This image shows great variability in these plants. This one was in an open, sunny spot along a track half-way down Macquarie Pass (in rainforest country). This flower shows a much darker , and very glossy front of the flower. The points are held much more steeply than in the plant above. The oval-shaped tip of the Labellum of this species is clearly visible in this image. The labellum of this flower is clearly brownish, not reddish. Click on the photo to see it as a larger image. Here is an image of a pot of cultivated plants of Pt. pedunculata which happened to have been brought to the meeting of the Illawarra Branch of Australasian Native Orchid Society tonight. These plants, growing together, are probably all clones from a single bulb - which probably explains their consistent form.
Here is a rear view of the first plant. I has a very prominet bulbous base (at the rear). This plant is close in shape to the first plant photographed by Mosura yesterday.Just to confirm the variablity of these plants, here is a rear view of the second plant - the one with the very high-held points. These two plants are very different in their width of the lower part of the rear of the flower.Finally, here is a young flower, just half developed. It is not as brownish as older flowers. In this case, the "points" are held high. The base of the flower is relatively narrow - not bulbous. This flower is very close to the one published by Mosura yesterday, as his "Pterostylis species B". The bottom of the stem appears white, but that might be an effect of the flash used to take these photos. I did not notice that when out in the field today - so I cannot be sure.

More Spring Flowers

Here are some more flowers from my garden, and from some friends' gardens.

Firstly some lovely Crocus flowers from George's garden - growing amongst leaves of Violets.
This plant has several names, but I grew up calling it Triteleia. It then was re-named to Ipheion, but I am not sure how widely that name is now accepted. It is a small flower, on very short stems. The leaves have a distinct garlic odour. It is one of the common early spring-flowering garden bulbs in Australia.This is a "Heartsease" Viola. A very small wild pansy, in effect. These little flowers self-seed in gardens. In fact they pop up anywhere. They are a very cheery flower, with typical "pansy" markings, and deep purple upper petals.Flowering Almond is one of the earliest of the Prunus family. This is a single flowered form. This was flowering on 8 August.
This is a flower of a Polygala with a Flower Spider sitting there, awaiting a visitng insect.Here is another flower of the Polygala showing the brush-like structure of the stamens. These plants generally resemble "Pea" flowers, but they are structured differently, and are not related to Pea flowers.This is a double-flowered Plum - Prunus x blireana flowering on 8 September - a full month after the related Flowering Almond. This plant is renowned for its prolific flowering. This plant is relatively young, as it was planted less than 5 years ago, but already it needs pruning to control it. One of my favourite plants, which I grow for every reason other than its flowers. It is the Melianthus major, which means large Honey-flower. Local nectar-feeding birds, namely the larger Honeyeaters, love this plant. Lewin's Honeyeater, and the Little Wattlebird are regular visitors to this plant's flowers. The individual flowers are tubular, within the long brownish-red sprays of flowers. I first fell in love with this plant, as a child, because of the deeply incised grey-green leaves. It is a very large soft-bodied shrub - growing up to 5 metres high and wide froma simple cutting planted 5 years ago. In fact, it has been hacked back a couple of times already, and still is that size. Clearly it loves growing in Robertson's rich red basalt soil.

Rain clears to a delightful Spring Sunset

After a wet week in Robertson, the skies cleared today, and left us with a delightful pink sunset this evening.

Over the last five days we have had (officially) 13mm, 17mm, 7mm, 27mm and 7mm of rain recorded in Robertson. That is nice spring rain, and the birds have been very happy.

That applies especially to the Whipbirds, which have been whipping and growling and chattering away in the thick shrubbery in my neighbour's boundary. The other birds which have been really obvious, have been the Grey Shrike Thrushes and the Bowerbirds. The Shrike Thrushes sing very prominently when it is wet. Here is a juvenile Shrike Thrush which I found (last year) after it had been stunned by a car. I rescued the bird, moving it off the road, to a safe location, and released it shortly afterwards, but I cannot swear that it survived. The faint stripes are typical of juvenile plumage in this species.The Satin Bowerbirds, at this time of the year, bounce around my neighbours neatly trimmed lawns, looking for worms which rise to the surface when the ground is waterlogged, as it has been all this week.

This is the sky as seen from Anni and Andy's place, down in the village of Robertson.A few minutes later, when I drove home, this was the view I saw as I drove into my driveway, and parked my car. Here is a slightly wider view. The tall tree on the left is a Sassafras.

Meeting with Maude Barlow

Caroline Graham of the Rivers SOS group organised a meeting with visiting Canadian writer and political activist, Maude Barlow. Maude has recently received considerable publicity in Australia through several interviews on Radio National.

Maude Barlow, listening intently

If I were to tell you that the sub-title of her book "Blue Gold" is "The battle against corporate theft of the world's water" you will get an idea of where Maude is coming from, when discussing water politics.

Maude making a point, to an attentive audience.
Maude, Caroline, Kim and Julie.

She is the Chairperson of the "Council of Canadians" . The Council of Canadians is a citizens' organization that advocates for progressive policies on behalf of its members across the country. The Council concentrates its advocacy around the core issues of fair trade, public health care and the right to water. Speaking with Maude, it is apparent that the swamping of Canadian Governmental issues by the USA, especially when it came to "free trade" issues (i.e., the realisation that Free Trade really means reduction of obstacles to American corporations doing what they want). Maude even apologised to us, as Australians, that the deplorable anti-Australian "Australia-US Free Trade Agreement" is based upon a model which was first accepted by the Canadian Government of the time. This legislation was introduced by the Howard Government, negotiated by Mark Vaile. It is a disgraceful document which weakens Australia's sovereignty in trade issues. The relevant Canadian/USA/Mexico Agreement is now known as NAFTA.

Caroline, Julie, Dianne and Maude (in foreground)

I first heard about Maude Barlow, following a Radio National interview some months ago. A recent interview with Maude Barlow, on 16 June 2008 may be accessed here. Various transcripts of ABC interviews with her, over many years, may be found at this linked Search of ABC Radio National's website

She has been touring Australia promoting her latest book Blue Covenant.

My friend in Melbourne, Miss Eagle, a fellow blogger, went to hear Maude speak last week, at the Melbourne Writers' Festival. She was so excited that she immediately emailed me, telling me about Maude.

Fortunately, Caroline had already organised for our groups to attend a talk Maude was to give at the Ashfield Library, in Sydney, and then for us to have private meeting with Maude in the hotel where she was staying. All this came to pass last Thursday, I am pleased to say.

Caroline Graham, Julie Sheppard and Alan and Dianne Page of the Rivers SOS group, and Bev Smiles, a coal and water campaigner from the Goulburn River (Hunter Valley) and Mudgee area and Kim Martin, and Bernard Eddy and myself (all from the Save Water Alliance) met with Maude in Sydney privately after the Ashfield Library lecture. We discussed a series of interesting possibilities about future co-operative water conservation campaigning in Australia.

Myself, Bev, Kim, Bernie, Maude, Caroline, Julie and Alan

Alan and Dianne Page of RiversSOS, with Maude Barlow

Spring Garden Flowers

Here are some flowers from Dorothy and Bernie's garden taken on the First of September.

The "Flowering Quince" (Chaenomeles "Winter Cheer") is always an eye-catcher, despite its sharp thorns. I grew up with this plant. It was known to my Mother as "Japonica" - a preposterous name, suggesting that it was the only flower the Japanese grew. My mother loved to use it in her "japanese-style" flower arrangements - heavily trimmed, and stuck onto a pin block in an angular-shaped shallow black saucer.
The simple beauty of flowering Plum Blossom (from a so called "Common or Garden" fruiting Plum) is often overlooked. They are gorgeous in their simplicity. The flowers also have a beautiful sweet perfume, carrying on the warm breeze.
Here is a somewhat garish orange Calendula flower. Impossible to ignore, although orange is my least favourite colour. The flowers on the humble Hebe shrub makes a pretty image. The green leaves balance the deep magenta-purple flowers.The purplish flowers of the Perennial Wallflower (Cheiranthus mutabilis) flower for such a long time in the garden that it is a wonderfully reliable and productive garden flower. I last wrote about this plant in the dead of winter. Now the flowers have a fresh blush of colour - more pinkish than amber and bronze.Here is a stand-out image - a perfect bud of the pink form of Magnolia stellata. A lovely plant.

More on Wattles

Here is a little more about Wattle "phyllodes" - those flat green things which pass for "leaves" on most of the Australian Wattle species.Firstly, all Wattles start out with true leaves, as they germinate. The local Blackwood Wattles (Acacia melanoxylon) which live a very long time, and grow into a large trees, keep their true leaves until the seedlings are about a metre high. Most Wattles with phyllodes convert their true leaves (into phyllodes) when they have developed only a inch or there abouts. I have this personal theory that Blackwoods, which are wet country wattles, have less pressure on them to convert to the more drought-adaptive form, and so are in no hurry to develop phyllodes.Here is the conversion process occurring. A pair of ferny leaves are being subsumed by a nice flat phyllode developing underneath them. This shows why "phyllodes" are described by botanists as "flattened stems". In fact the adaptation is part of a dry country survival technique, because leaves have far fewer "stomata" or "breathing holes", and thus a plant which has only stems (phyllodes) loses far less water by transpiration. Although in this example, true leaves developed first, and then the stem supporting the true leaves has gone flat, once the plant reaches a certain stage in its development, it goes directly to the stage of producing "phyllodes". That is what is seen in this image. The stem on the leaf is "converting" from true leaf to phyllode. The young stem in the centre, however, is developing directly as a phyllode. Once this stage is reached, all future "leaves" will develop as phyllodes. So, it is only at the young plant stage, that true leaves are formed which convert to the phyllode. Once that stage is reached, all future "leaves" will develop as "phyllodes".This plant is nearing the complete transformation, but it is about a metre tall already. Future development will be entirely via phyllode growth.This is a local Blackwood in flower. The colour is very pale, and the leaves (sorry, phyllodes) are quite a pale lime yellow. It does have a pleasant perfume, but not as sweet as some of the smaller, shrubby Wattles.This is a medium-sized Blackwood Wattle growing in the paddock below my house. It is the dense, rounded tree in the centre-left of the image. To the right of the image, you can see several smaller trees which are less "dense" in form, and which are greener in colour. They are Sassafras trees (Doryphora sassafras). In this area, really old Blackwood Wattles grow into round-headed trees, but with a more open structure than one would assume from this dense tree shape. Their trunks often reach more than a metre in diameter, and the old trees reach about 25 metres in height. I am advised that the Tasmanian form of the Blackwood, which is a famous furniture timber tree, is taller and straighter than the local form.

Happy Wattle Day

Today, 1 September, is Wattle Day in Australia.

I know Queenslanders and ex-Queenslanders will scream - "It should be 1 August". This issue came up at the Robertson Garden Club today, and so I decided to check it out. According to the Wattle Day Association, this issue was formally decided on an Australia-wide basis in 1992.
Here in the colder parts of NSW, many Wattles are flowering now. In fact, on my trip to Queensland last week, there were many Wattles in flower beside the roads. So the date seems appropriate.
Of course, as a former guide at the Australian National Botanic Gardens in Canberra I know that there are different species of Wattles (Acacias) which flower in each month of the year. But the reality is that the preponderance of the Wattles do flower in Spring.

Studies of buds of the Blackwood Wattle, (Acacia melanoxylon). The wattle blossom is clearly seen to be a composite flower, made up by many different flowers grouped into a rounded "head", dominated by a spray of anthers, each covered with pollen grains.
What one does not normally notice is the petals which rupture as the anthers mature, and push out to open. The botanists describe Wattle flowers and leaves in the following terms:

• Flowers actinomorphic; petals valvate, equal; stamens usually numerous, forming the conspicuous part of the inflorescence; leaves often bipinnately compound or reduced to phyllodes.

As for their actual flowering times, I have published photos of Wattles in flower in my yard, over the last month, and some others in the bush, near the Boxvale Track, on 12 July.

Here are several Wattle trees in full flower, visible from several hundred metres away. These are probably A. decurrens (amended from A mearnsii - 24.7.09 - DJW), the same ones as I have growing in my backyard. The flowering season, and brilliant golden colour is distinctive from other popular fern-leaved Wattles which grow in this district (as planted, non-endemic).For those interested in researching the world-wide distribution of "Wattles" or "Acacia" species - (the generic name "Acacia" has been subjected to review by taxonomists), Australia has some 993 formally defined species of 1381 species world wide number of species. That is 72 percent of all known species are found in Australia. More significantly we have 975 species (out of 987 species worldwide) in the sub-genus "Phyllodineae" the group of wattles which have flat "false leaves" or "Phyllodes", as distinct from the "true leaved" species - the so-called "fern-leaved wattles". Here is the leaf of one of the so-called fern-leafed Wattles, Acacia decurrens.

Below is a close-up of a Wattle phyllode - it is a flattened stem.
The lower image shows the "gland",
the shape and location of which is distinctive of each different species.

Australia has 98.8% of the world's "flat-leaved" Wattles.