February - Vegetation and vertigo!

Our travels have not all been about rocks and ancient land. As always the plants fascinate me - surprise surprise! Not the best time of year to view and identify many of them - for me at least as I am still a novice albeit an enthusiastic one and  they continue to draw my eye. 

We picked up a couple of great little brochures in Lightning Ridge - one plant sites and the other bird sites around Lightning Ridge. With these in hand, and my trust book on inland plants (love that book!), we took off for the surrounding bush. What an interest day! Learnt so much, but ended up with lots of questions - as always. Here’s a mixed selection of pix from that and other places on this trip. 

The vertigo? Travelling too long on very rough roads (knitting all the while) and my head is nearly done in - not surprise really. We could stop ....... who said that? Wash your mouth out!

Poverty bush - not sure which one.

One of the Dwarf Cassia species.  Touch their leaves and they fold up. Found on Bulloo Downs on the Wompah Gate Road

Myall tree. Beautiful shade trees with soft pendulous branches. At least the beast got a bit of shade!

This is the Warrior Bush (Apophyllum abomalum). I took this pic because the tree was absolutely choked with mistletoe. Even as trees were suffering in the drought, the mistletoe seemed almost to thrive.

I managed to get a pic of the flower of the Wild Orange (Capparis mitchellii). So similar to the Caper flower.







This is the Gruie (Owenia acidula) also known as Sour Plum, Emu apple plus other names.

One of many Aboriginal scar trees in a Eucalypt woodland along, actually a long way off, the road . The bark from these would have been used to make Coolamons.

The Stiff Cherry (Leafless Ballart) forms understory growth.

The Ballart isn’t very pretty but was an important plant to aboriginal I believe. 

Feral cactus were everywhere around Lightning Ridge but they were looking pretty stressed. This prickly pear has fruited but was dried out.

Wow! This is a prickly pear tree! Never seen anything like it.

This looks evil - Hudson Pear. An introduced noxious cactus. We saw so many cacti planted in Lighting Ridge and surrounds. Why do people do it? We have so many drought ‘tolerant’ native species - it’s beyond me.