Trichostema lanatum
Tag: wildflowers
Epipactis gigantea
My docent buddies Rick and Tom showed me a secret (off-trail) trove of stream orchids in the mountains. The hike included bushwhacking through poison oak, and getting wet in the creek. Some blood was shed (by the guys, not me). But we were rewarded with the best stand of Epipactic gigantea I’ve ever seen. Thanks Rick and Tom, it was awesome.
Eschscholzia californica
Dendromecon rigida
It’s been a while since I hiked Piuma Ridge Trail. Not a whole ton of wildflowers, but this one bush poppy shrub/tree was stunning.
Epilobium canum
I notice, I wonder …
Penstemon centranthifolius
I’m pretty sure these were scarlet buglers (Penstemon centranthifolius) in great profusion in the northern part of Cheeseboro Canyon. We’ll have to go back in spring to be sure.
glass house mountains
The Glass House Mountains are a group of thirteen hills that rise sharply from a plain on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The mountains lie within the traditional lands of the Jinibara and Gubbi Gubbi people. First Nations Australians hold a rich legend surrounding these mountains, with Mt Beerwah being especially significant as the “mother” of the range.
Both Indigenous groups request that visitors refrain from climbing Beerwah and Tibrogargan out of respect for their sacred importance, a call they have voiced publicly since the mid-1990s, to little avail. In Gubbi Gubbi tradition, climbing Mt Beerwah is believed to bring bad luck.
My daughter and I did not climb Mt Tibrogargan—we circumnavigated its base, and saw some really cool invertebrates, flowers, and birds, as well as views of more distant mounts.
Sydney wildlife
There’s an active brush turkey nest in my friends’ front yard, right below the verandah. It’s a huge mound of mulch and leaf litter, several metres wide, which the male tends daily with much scratching and shifting of the plant material as the eggs incubate deep inside.
Brush turkeys are not exactly beloved in suburban gardens, as they steal every bit of mulch they can find. Once one starts building a mound, it’s pretty much impossible to get it to stop.
If the chosen location is really inconvenient, you can try to redirect the bird’s attention to a different part of your garden by creating a compost mound. The brush turkey might be drawn to this spot and eventually adopt the compost mound as its nesting site. Good luck!
Week 35
There aren’t many wildflowers out at this time of year, but hardy tarweed colours the slopes.
Delphinium cardinale
One of our three native larkspurs, this perennial member of the buttercup family blooms from May to July in chaparral and coastal sage scrub. I don’t see a lot of it, so it’s always a treat to find one of the tall displays of bright red flowers.
hashiworks 