{"id":1685,"date":"2023-12-24T08:35:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-24T08:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/?p=1685"},"modified":"2024-01-12T23:22:02","modified_gmt":"2024-01-12T23:22:02","slug":"summer-wildflowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/summer-wildflowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Summer wildflowers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wildflower season in the foothill forests is an ever-changing parade of colour. The first wave, in early August, \u00a0is purple hoveas and hardenbergia, offset by yellow wattle blossoms. Then we have a gold and orange pea party as all the \u2018egg and bacon\u2019 shrubs and groundcovers come into flower. But now, in early summer, it is time for some very bright individuals.<\/p>\n

We have already seen the flowering of one of our most exquisite blooms \u2013 the Fringed Violet or Common Fringe-lily. The species name is\u00a0Thysanotus tuberosus,<\/em>\u00a0with\u00a0tuberosus<\/em>\u00a0referring to their edible root, rather like a yam daisy I imagine. The Fringe-lily is a perennial herb, with very thin leaves and is quite hard to see on the forest floor until the flowers open. Each bloom flowers for only one day. When there are a dozen or more plants flowering in dry open forest among the grass tussocks it is a memorable sight!<\/p>\n

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Simply exquisite!<\/p><\/div>\n

Another early Summer wildflower is the Blue Pincushion, Brunonia australis<\/em>. These cheerful and aptly named wildflowers are in the massive and very variable daisy family (Asteraceae). The flower head is actually a ball of loosely packed small blue flowers. Blue Pincushions often grow in a massed display, making the forest floor bright blue. The variable weather this year has meant the pincushions look a little washed out and not as vibrant as in previous years. In fact, every patch I have seen in the last week or so was not worthy of a pic!<\/p>\n

Alternatively, one of our local Senecio species is putting on a show-stopping display this year, with large flat-topped clusters of small, bright yellow-orange blooms. It is called the Fireweed Groundsel,\u00a0Senecio linearifolius<\/em>. It grows in large numbers after fire or other disturbances, prompting many folks to assume it is a weed. But it is native, and an important plant for our local butterflies and moths.<\/p>\n

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Fireweed groundsel – you can see splashes of yellow through the bushland in the distance<\/p><\/div>\n

Last but very much not least are the incredible Hyacinth Orchids. These orchids spend most of the year underground, absorbing vital nutrients via a symbiotic relationship with a type of fungi. Their flowers are emerging now and look like maroon or light green asparagus stalks emerging from the clay! \u00a0We have two species locally: the Rosy Hyacinth Orchid\u00a0Dipodium roseum<\/em>\u00a0which is found over much of Victoria, and the Spotted Hyacinth Orchid\u00a0Dipodium pardalinum<\/em>\u00a0which grows only in scattered locations over western Victoria.<\/p>\n

I haven’t seen any Spotted Hyacinths out yet, but I did see this magnificent Rosy Hyacinth Orchid a couple of days ago. There were two individuals in lovely forest off Porcupine Ridge rd, Glenluce area.<\/p>\n

May these blossoms bring you some brightness and joy over the festive season!<\/p>\n

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A stunner!<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wildflower season in the foothill forests is an ever-changing parade of colour. The first wave, in early August, \u00a0is purple hoveas and hardenbergia, offset by yellow wattle blossoms. Then we have a gold and orange pea party as all the \u2018egg and bacon\u2019 shrubs and groundcovers come into flower. But now, in early summer, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27,19,41,20],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1689,"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1685\/revisions\/1689"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tanyaloos.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}