Beetles love blossoms.

For the last week, several plants of Melaleuca linariifolia in my yard have been flowering prolifically. I decided yesterday that I ought take some photos to show you how these flowers are structured, for they are somewhat unusual.

This plant is one of those plants known as "Snow in Summer".
Such names are of course, very ambiguous, but poetic.

A little closer view.

Here is a shot of a head if flowers - seen end on.
The bristling petals interlock,
making it hard to see where one flower starts.

Here is the same group of flowers, seen from the side.
You can see the petals opened out like little cups.
They are clearly visible on the left hand flower -
the one closest to my fingers.
The long white structures are not petals they are stamens.
The botanists describe this structure as a "claw".
That's the bit I was referring to as unusual.
Click to enlarge the image to see the tiny dots of pollen.

Here is a set of buds, just starting to open.
Here is a spray of leaves, from which the plant takes its name
- the "Flax-leaved Melaleuca" (from "Linum" the Flax plant)

While I was taking those shots I realised that the old flowers were smothered with beetles.

Click to enlarge.
Small Brown Beetles and Soldier Beetles. I do not know why the fresh flowers were not attracting the beetles. The old flowers were literally crawling with beetles.

The first Tree Peonies of Spring

The first Tree Peonies have started.

As per usual, the very first to open was Destiny (a Paeonia rockii variant) - an old Australian variety seemingly brought to Australia by Chinese Gold-miners back in the mid 1800s.
The next day, the first of the Paeonia ostii flowers opened. Click to enlarge to see the details of the flower.
These things are so lovely I will not spoil their beauty with superfluous words. Click this image to enlarge, and see the glorious detail of the flower stamens, and the carpels in the "Eye of the Peony", and the dusting of pollen, which shows how fresh this flower is.

Boxvale Track - Greenhoods, and other highlights

Today I went back to the Boxvale Track, near Welby, to check on the progress of some Nodding Greenhoods which I had seen in flower in early spring, two years ago.

I was in luck, fortunately, as they were just starting to flower.

I recalled that this colony is very dense, even though in terms of this species it is not a large colony. In fact there are two colonies, on opposite sides of the track. They are growing in a dark and very protected section of the track where there once was a "tramway" installed to remove coal from a coal mine further out in the Nattai Gorge (in the 1880s). Like all such tramways (or miners' train tracks) they were laid out as straight and as flat as possible. Consequently, the Boxvale Tranway was laid through cuttings in shallow hills, and along built-up mounds of earth and rock, in sections where the ground fell away too steeply for the tramway. In several creek crossings, there were even wooden bridges installed, and traces of that construction are still evident. Anyway, from the point of view of these Greenhoods, there is now a nice, cool, dark cutting about 4 metres deep through a sandstone hillside. Perfect for the Nodding Greenhood (Pterostylis nutans).

Here are two nicely matched flowers, growing like "bookends".
Another specimen was growing nice and tall, very much like the one illustrated in the PlantNET page for the species.Here you can see how close these plants sometimes grow, forming a carpet with their leaves. But only when conditions really suit them.Another interesting plant was a very narrow leaved form of Persoonia.It is almost certainly a natural hybrid between Persoonia levis, (of which there are some specimens growing nearby) and Persoonia linearis, which is the most common Persoonia here. This plants leaves were about the same size and shape as the leaves of a Callistemon citrinus. But it was definitely a Persoonia. The image is not great, but you can make out the fruit, which is diagnostic of the genus. The colour of the leaves, and texture resembled the P. levis parent, but the shape was far narrower, not the broad oval leaves of that species. But it was not at all like the P. linearis species (which has very narrow flat leaves). The bark was thick and reddish coloured, and flaky. In that regard it has the properties of both parent plants. The botanical texts acknowledge that such natural hybrids are not uncommon.

It is a shame that Persoonias are difficult to propagate, as a plant with these characteristics would have garden potential, if only one could successfully strike cuttings. But all the experts say it is virtually impossible to get them to strike.

On the way back to the car, I found several nice specimens of some small Mallee Eucalypts. You can see the multiple stems of this plant, instead of a single trunk, as with most Eucalypts. I have taken a photo of flower buds, and I hope to be able to work out what species it might be, later on. Such plants are recorded from the tops of the Blue Mountains (of which this area is the southern-most extension). And I have also seen similar plants along very exposed edges of the Shoalhaven Valley and Kangaroo Valley. In those cases, they are restricted to growing right on exposed cliff edges. here is was in deep sand, surrounded by tall Scribbly Gums.

Talking of which, here is very fine old specimen of a Scribbly Gum tree.The Boxvale Track goes out about 4 km to a lookout over the Nattai River Gorge, and from there one can take a track down to the river valley. Parts of this track are quite steep, and so there is a nice amateurish cliff warning sign. The point is evident. I should not mock the signwriter's skills, as indeed the valleys of the Blue Mountains and Shoalhaven are known for people slipping or falling over cliffs.I should report that along the way I saw old (finished) flowers of Acianthus (Mosquito Orchids) and many leaves of Chiloglottis (Ant Orchids) and also a form of Speculantha (Tiny Greenhoods - in the "parviflora" group) - with flowers now finished. Also I saw a single specimen of the Tall Greenhood (Bunochilus longifolius) in bud.

Winter Wallflower: an ever-changing beauty.

Cheiranthus mutabilis, the Purple, winter-flowering Wallflower is a gorgeous plant. I love it.

I actually do not grow this plant in my own yard (for reasons which I cannot explain). I have planted it at the CTC@Robertson, and Dorothy and Bernie have it growing where they live, in Bowral. This is their plant.

The buds appear as a purple rosette. The colour comes from the colour of the bracts which cover the flowers before they open. Then as the first sign of the petals appear, they show as bright orange.

Purple and orange - what a combination? Interior designers would scream at the thought of matching those colours. But it works in nature.

As the petals first unfurl, the bright orange petal opens as a pale peachy yellow, and turns almost immediately to a buff-brown. The petals are suffused with pigments which darken as the flower ages. So yellow flowers change through a pinkish tone to purple. It is an extraordinary transformation.
Some modern forms of this plant are all purple, but, like many "improved varieties" of flowers, it is surely a retrograde step to remove its greatest charm - its changeability of colour - the "mutability" for which it is named. It is precisely this amazing colour variation which I love. How do the natural plant pigments achieve this colour change as the flowers mature? I wish I knew the chemistry involved.
This flower is very attractive to the Hover Fly, which itself is an adornment to any flower.

More garden plants

Here are a few more "garden plants" in flower.

Having shown you a stunning large-flowered Clematis, with mauve-blue flowers, a few days ago, here is what the local native Clematis looks like. This species is Clematis glycinoides.
What it lacks in quality and size of blooms, it makes up for in "enthusiasm". This plant is fantastically floriferous, with one single plant covering two full-sized trees with its white flowers.
So, this plant, while completely native and natural in its setting here, should be classed as a "wild flower", but I like to regard it as a "garden plant" as well - for the wonderful effect of its flowers. And in a few months, the female plants will also show the famous silvery white seed heads, thus creating a second display of sheets of white.

This is another "wild flower" - from Japan. It is Rosa rugosa "Rosarie de la Hay". This is its first full flower, but soon the plant will smother itself in these lovely magenta flowers, which are sweetly scented. The perfume is in the same slightly musky range as the more famous "old-fashioned Roses". I love the Rusosa Roses for their wildly healthy, rich green foliage. They are very prickly, but the thorns are more like pins and needles than the more dangerous reverse hooked thorns of the Hybrid Tea Roses. So, while they are difficult to handle, these plants are not as bad as they are made out to be, once you get the knack of handling them. Rosa sinica alba, which I showed you several days ago, is vastly more dangerous to handle, with vicious thorns on long arching canes.
Here is an un-named variety of Lilac. This was a good garden specimen, but it is basically a wild form, as it is a "sucker", not a grafted, named variety. I love it any way. And here is a close-up of the Hybrid Waratah, "Red Shady Lady". This plant is a really good garden specimen, as this plant is less than two years old in my garden, (planted as a 6 inch pot specimen). It has had at least 50 flowers this season. Amazing.