Be prepared: we might find them!
As we drove towards Goulburn there were quite a few fields of canola: I don't recall seeing them in this area in the past.
On arriving at the far end of the Pomaderris Reserve we found a whole lotta
Pomaderris sp 'Bungonia' growing in a Telstra easement. This wasn't what we were really after, (and for which the Reserve was declared) which was
P. delicata.
Here is a close up of 'Bungonia'.
After some (quite a) few minutes of searching and finding
P. Bungonia and
P. andromedifolia (and as I didn't take a snap of the latter I can't use my malapropism about
P androgynous) I finally found a couple of small examples of
P delicata. It was growing on the roadside - amongst a quite outrageous amount of litter and garbage - and thus outside the protection of the Reserve!
That is all the Pommy derrieres for today. We did however come across a further member of the
Rhamnaceae in
Cryptandra amara longiflora.
Getting down to orchids the first found was this very pale
Petalochilus fuscatus. (I had nitially thought Stegostyla but on reflection, and receiving a comment, the dorsal sepal is too vertical.)
Petalochilus fuscatus was very common, especially at the first stop - this is a more typically coloured one.common.
The first donkey orchid we found was IMHO
Diuris pardina.
This one, at Souths Reserve, was clearly a
D. chryseopsis, or Golden Moth.
The next two were a bit of a difficulty as the lateral petals seemed a bit too separate from the rest of the flower; the labellum as not the right shape and the brown blotches seemed unlike the Golden Moths. However neither the Field Guide for ACT orchids nor David Jones Big Book allowed me to attach another name to these. Suggestions welcome
Sticking briefly with yellow moncotyledons I found 1
Bulbine bulbosa with an open flower at Souths. A lot of emerging buds were also evident.
Still monocot, but obviously not yellow was
Thysanotus patersoni.
Staying monocot, but shifting the memory of Mr Paterson up a slot we found a lot of
Patersonia sericea.
I'll now shuffle in to Dicotyledons with a visit to a few members of the Fabaceae. First up is
Podolobium ilicifolium.
Next is
Pultenaea microphylla.
Dillwynia sieberi: rather a pale version but the spiky leaves seemed right..
A very peachy coloured
Lissanthe strigosa.
Rhytidosporum procumbens
A couple of forms of
Leucochrysum abicans tricolor, including a bud.
A close-up of the bud (included under the 'spiffy image' rule)
Oops we seem to have wandered back into the monocots. I will point out that both of the next two plants were heavily size-deficient: when I got to the clustered group of members looking at them I thought they were photographing bare ground. As is often the case when looking at an expanded image they are quite charming.
This first dark sample was
Schoenus apogon!
This is
Centrolepis strigosa.
There are no pictures of birds from today but insects were very evident (including some bities).
This Yellow Admiral (
Vanessa itea), munching from a
Brachyloma daphnoides I think, was one of several specimens of that species seen today.
From the patterned wings I suspect this was another fruit fly on a Leucochrysum.
A Tabanid fly also on a Leucchrysum.
A bee, doing business on a buttercup (
Ranunculus sp.)
Comments
Denis
PS I was going to ask about the roadside verge in email 'cos I have found an unusual Pomaderris there previously. So glad you found such plant there too.
Denis
Martin