GRASS TREES BLOOM in the ANGLESEA HEATH

During the week we were taken for a walk through some coastal heathland by our friends Heather and John. They live in Anglesea, the next town along the coast west of Torquay. The area is famous for the heath and open woodland forest, on the north and west of the township. The Anglesea Heath covers an area of 6,700 hectares and is particularly well known for the great diversity of its wildflowers, including a large number of terrestrial orchids. 

The impetus for the walk was the sighting by Heather and John of a large number of Xanthorrhoea australis, that were all in flower; a particularly spectacular sight. It is unusual to see a lot of these plants flowering all at the same time. The clue to this phenomenon is on the right of the photo. The blackened trunk of a Messmate, Eucalyptus obliqua, is the result of a small 'controlled burn' to reduce the fuel load in the undergrowth. Both the Messmate and the Xanthorrhoea are fire-adapted species. Xanthorrhoea responds to fire by producing flowers, and thereby many seeds.

We were surprised to see a small number of flower spikes that were contorted, presumably because of damage as the flower spike was starting to form. I am guessing that it may have been caused by insects.

As you can see most of the flower spikes are quite straight.

However, this one must have been damaged very early in its development. If you look closely you will see that it has formed a spiral of one and a half anti-clockwise revolutions.

This photo is poor quality because it is a small section of a much larger image. It shows a flock of Sulphur Crested Cockatoos perched on the flower spikes and feeding on the seeds. In the full photo I can count seventeen individuals. 

This photo shows some of the Heath where a variety of small flowers are starting to bloom. It is adjacent to an area of open forest. The Wikipedia article states that "...Heathland is favoured where climatic conditions are typically hard and dry, particularly in summer, and soils acidic, of low fertility, and often sandy and very free draining."  

On our walk I was surprised to see a lot of the white form of the Australian Common Heath, Epacris impressa.

In the Ironbark Basin area, where we more often walk, the pink form is much more common and the white rare. The pink form is the state flower of Victoria.

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Meanwhile, in our garden the first of this year's blue Dutch Iris, Iris x hollandica 'Imperator' has appeared. The bulbs of this Iris were given to me by a neighbour. Not trusting the soil in our garden I planted some in a pot with a 'water well' and others in the open garden. Those in the garden are about one third the size and have not flowered. The blue is so wonderfully intense that I have used it for this week's ikebana. 

Having only one flower I have set it with three leaves of New Zealand Flax that I have split and folded into narrow triangles. The olive green of the flax is a good foil for the blue of the iris.  The Shino-glazed suiban is by the New Zealand ceramic artist Elena Renka.

Greetings from Christopher

15th August 2021