Golden Guinea Flower

September 5, 2011PlantsGolden Guinea Flower, Hibbertia, Hibbertia scandens, Nativeadmin

Hibbertia scandens

“A vigorous scrambler with dense foliage” – NPOS p.332

There are beds of this outside the office building where I work, I’ve not seen it in the wild.

from http://www.friendsoflanecovenationalpark.org.au/Flowering/Flowers/Hibbertia_scandens.htm

Hibbertia scandens is a vigorous climber commonly found on sandy coastal areas through to inland forests. It prefers sunny positions on good soil. It has thick fleshy stems trailing 3m up tree trunks or along the ground, often twining around each other. The name “scandens” refers to its climbing habit.

The leaves of Hibbertia scandens are alternate, large, up to 8 cm long, shiny above and hairy beneath. Some are toothed.

The flowers are larger than Hibbertia dentata, to 9cm across. The seeds are bright red and shiny, clustering on the old sepals.

Hibbertia scandens mainly flowers in Spring and Summer.

Fish Bones

September 5, 2011PlantsFish Bones, Lomandra, Lomandra obliqua, Nativeadmin

Lomandra obliqua

“A small, stiff, sprawling herb with 2-ranked leaves. Common in heath and woodland” – NPOS p.277

The number of plant species is overwhelming, sometimes I step out side and I just don’t know where to start, almost everything I look at is new or unknown. A lot of the plants I’m identifying at first are novel or unusual, Fish Bones I think falls into that category.

It’s a small and hardy looking plant that seems to occur in clusters. It looks primitive, simple yet tough and well adapted to it’s environment.

more info:

Broom Spurge

September 5, 2011PlantsAmperea, Amperea xiphoclada, Broom Spurge, Nativeadmin

Amperea xiphoclada

“A wiry shrub to 60cm high, apparently leafless, with several strongly ridged stems arising from a woody rootstock” – NPOS p.165

I found this one just out the back of the house. In the close up picture you can just see the tiny tiny leaves. They’re barely noticeable, growing straight out of the stems, on some you can see serrated margins.

Broom Spurge - Scientific name: Amperea xiphoclada

Lavender Scallops

September 5, 2011Plantsintroduced, Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi, Lavender Scallopsadmin

Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi

It took a while to track this one down. The way I did it in the end was to type in a loose description of the plant into Google Images and look for a picture that matched. “bell like orange flowers succulent” did the trick.

From what I could find these plants are a native of Madagascar. A previous owner of the house or a neighbor must have liked them, they are running wild all through our garden.

Noticed belongs to the order Saxifragales, I wonder if this is where the character Saxifrage Russell from Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars trillogy got his name.

In Garigal

Observations in Garigal National Park