BELL-SHAPED FLOWERS

The last couple of weeks have been relatively cool and cloudy on the Surf coast. Yesterday was perfect summer weather with blue skies and a slight cooling breeze.

This is a view of Southside beach from near the cliff edge that people paragliding use as a launching place. Any breeze coming off the sea will result in an updraft above the cliff. The day, being so fine, was perfect for a walk in the Iron Bark Basin part of the Great Otway National Park.

One of the first wildflowers I noticed was this little Fringed Lily, Thysanotus tuberosus. The small, intense purple flowers, less than 3cm across, have three petals that have the most amazing fringing on their edges.

A little further along we came across a number of small bushes, of what I thought was a white everlasting flower.

Here is one of the larger bushes...

...and a close up of the flowers.

When I zoomed in on the flowers I was really surprised to notice that the flower centres seem to be made up of a cluster of tiny flowers. My friend and excellent plant identifier, Fermi, said that this looks like a member of the Asteraceae family and is most likely a Tansy. The closest I can find on Wikipedia is Achillea ptarmica. 

I have seen this plant in the past and naively assumed it to be indigenous because its petals are papery like an everlasting. However, it may have been introduced as long ago as the 1920s when this whole valley was denuded of its trees. An Ochre mine was established when deposits of Ferris Oxide were identified. It is astonishing to me that the valley was revegetated by the late 1960's when I first began visiting. The following link is to an article about the failed mining project, Jarosite Mine.

It was also a delight to see this Correa with its yellow tipped red bell-shaped flower. Correas are one of our favourite indigenous plants that we have introduced to our garden.

*          *          *          *          *

Meanwhile in our garden the bell-shaped flowers on this succulent have started to open and show their glowing orange interior. The leaves have a silvery-grey 'glaucous' bloom that protects the plant from loosing moisture in the hot sun. 

This week's ikebana uses this succulent, although I removed its large thick leaves. 

Two stems have been arranged at an angle toward the left front. The angle of the shorter stem has been set so that both are a similar height above the vase. I have used the fine leaves of Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia baileyana, for its blue-grey as a textural contrast. Both plants harmonise with the pale blue glaze of the vase by the Victorian ceramic artist Barry Singleton.

Greetings from Christopher

24th January 2021