ANPS sees white on Black Mountain

Unfortunately it wasn't the white of Stegostyla sp. but read on a bit - OK quite a bit - to find out what it was!  There are a couple of rants to begin with, but we soon get to plants!

We were greeted by this very nice sign.

As always I wonder how much they pay for the design, fabrication and installation of such boffo.  My guess is that it could cover the cost of a few staff years of Ranger effort to prosecute litterers, trail bike riders and other degenerates.

So what do you do with a Nature Reserve?  What else than run a squillion power lines through it.

In case you wonder about the soil profile in Black Mountain here it is.

Possibly the term 'soil gets stretched a bit there, but I don't have to dig it, and the plants seem to like it which is the main thing.

As we are getting close to Wattle Day (and there are celebrations advertised on the net by the Friends of ANBG) I will start the floriferosity with some Acacias.  The commonest one today was A buxifolia.

 A. gunnii was, as usual, keeping a low, but attractive profile.

A. genistifolia.

 A. dealbata

 Some purple beans were evident all through the area (at least the bits that haven't been incinerated recently - rant - me rant?  surely not).  Hardenbergia violacea.

Hovea heterophylla

Here is some white, although Leucopogon fletcheri was not what led to the title of this post.

 Neither was L. attenuatus.

 And Melichrus urceolatus is more cream than white (apart from the fertilised bits which are an attractive shade of orange).

We now move into the sphere of things with rather inconspicuous flowers.  My guess is that if you are reading this on a 'phone screen this flower of Omphacomeria acerba will be about 10x life size.  Using a laptop computer - many times life size.  But it is cute.

Luzula densiflora is usually seen as a rosette only, but this one had some nice flowers.

 I think this is the male version of Phyllanthus hirtellus!

 Drosera sp was enjoying lunch (and supper and breakfast -  for the next several days).

Hakea decurrens.

You can run, but you can't hide.  Pomaderris will always get you: in this case P. intermedia.

 Finally a yellow and red bean: Dillwynnia phylicoides.

I was trying to take a snap of a native bee on this Eucalypt blossom but:

1. missed the insect; and 
2. forgot to ID the tree!

 This is not Grevillea alpina!

 The traditional Stypandra glauca.

 A non-traditional Stypandra glauca.  That is the white flower I have been banging on about!

Suggestions were raised about there being uranium in the soil to cause the mutation, but I'd rate it equally likely it got zapped by a burst of waves from the Tower!

Fortunately we did find some greenhoods to make up for the lack of not-Caladenias.  Bunochilus umbrinus

This shows - very badly - the biggest bunch.

 I have obviously got right out of touch at snapping orchids.  We found quite a few Pterostylis nutans.

There is going to be a good display of Glossodia major in a few weeks.  This hairy job was the most advanced we saw.

Some interesting moss sporangia.

The only fungus I noticed today was this Stereum sp.