Wild Flower Watch VI

Six weeks into my spring wildflower watch and I am still finding new delights in the old Queenstown Cemetery.

Down among the grass stems I found this little thing almost instantly. 

It is tiny, green spears in the background are grass blades.

 

Once again I have no idea what it is. My nasty suspicious mind wonders if it is a weed, but it is pretty in any case.

As always there are zillions of sundews busy munching small insects.

 

The bright sunny day lit up this Button Everlasting beautifully, I think this one is Coronidium scorpioides

 

The bright sun made it a little hard shooting this spray of Spotted Sun Orchids.

 

But it got their petals glistening beautifully.

 

Speaking of glisten, the petals of this Twining Fringe Lily look as if a fairy has dusted them.

I also like this piccie as it shows how it gets the name ‘twining’ again it is minute, those are dry grass stems it is twined around.

Little treasures (Wild Flower Watch V)

Once again the Queenstown Cemetery has out done itself.

Once again Al has to confess ignorance of Oz botany!

I saw this tiny star like flower as soon as I went into the cemetery.

 

Absolutely no idea what it is, but it is very sweet. Here it is at another angle

 

These have just been buds until today,
 
I had guessed they are not a native and I was right. They are Yellow Ixia, and as pretty as they are they are essentially a weed in the Oz bush.

I guess this blue delight is a Wahlenbergia species known as Australian bluebells but I could easily be wrong as it doesn’t look quite right.

I haven’t seen this pea before; unlike most of the others in the cemetery it is a creeping vine rather than a little shrub. I think it is Creeping Bossiaea (Bossiaea prostrate)

 

The tiny shrub peas are beginning to wither away

 

No idea what this is, but I guess it might be one of the “heaths”. They are minute, the petals about the size of a rice grain.

 

Another mystery. 

Unfortunately I didn’t notice the blade of grass across the frame until it came to processing the piccies at home

A trigger plant. I think this one has “fired”

 

This odd spear looked like budding flowers,

 

But in extreme close up I think this is actually a head of absolutely minute flowerettes

This Wahlenbergia  (if that is what it is) refused to be overshadowed by a weed!

 

But the treat of the day was definitely an orchid, or should I say number of orchids

 

They are Spotted Sun Orchids (Thelymitra merranae)

I went nuts shooting maybe fifty frames of various specimens poking up through the grass.

This one is just unfurling

 

Close ups

 

And super close ups

 

A spray of several in a group.

 

And this is my favourite of the day.

 

Piccie of the day: an Orchid

Deb and I broke with our tradition of heading out of town today.

Our garage has been sorely in need of sorting out for ever since we moved in (over two years ago)  so we stayed home and made a start.

By the time we finished it was nearly 3:00 and given we are still in the midst of short winter days we decided to stay home.

I was bitterly cold again today so it was probably a good day to stay put.

Spring can't be too far away now? Surely not?

And once the warmer weather comes I can go hunting for beauties like this.

It is a Spotted Sun Orchid (Thelymitra merranae)  I snapped last spring.

Death and Wildflowers

A very quick post tonight.

Yesterday as is our wont Deb and I got out and about.

We stayed relatively close to home, deciding to have a late breakfast and head for an abandoned gold-rush era cemetery.

After a light shower in the morning it turned into a beautiful spring day.

You can see from this piccie what a bright sunny afternoon it became.
Welcome to the Queenstown cemetery which was in use from 1860 until 1981.

Most of the 380 recorded graves were from the gold-rush and pioneer era.

Showing the standards of the time there are believed to be a significant number of unrecorded and unmarked graves of Chinese gold miners. Evidence of most graves including the recorded ones has vanished, destroyed by a bushfire in 1962.

My intention was to make a record of the graves and cemetery (I love cemetaries).

But I was quickly distracted. Because spring means wildflowers.

There were hundreds, many of which I have never seen before. Remember I have only lived in Victoria for a few years and Oz has an incredibly regionally diverse flora.

Just two of the beauties I captured were a Spotted Sun Orchid (Thelymitra merranae)
And a close up. Isn’t it exquisite?

A white Hyacinth Orchid (I think) I’m not sure of the species, more research is in order.
Speaking of research I posted this piccie of a cute bird, but didn’t know what it was. It turns out s/he is a White-browed Scrubwren (Sericornis frontalis).

Thanks for the reminder Amanda

Next: Killer Plants