Time to go through your Wildflower Pictures

Submitted: Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 11:39

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Drummond's Everlasting Daisy, Pompom daisy

Springtime splendour, when vast areas of red sand come alight with these amazing everlastings. Slender upright herb, leaves elongated. Flowers in heads 2 to 3cm across that can be white,

Member - Stephen L (Clare SA)

Hi All

It is that time of the year again when the Australian landscape is awash with wildflowers. Many people are still out on the road on holidays and there are many still ducking out for weekend trips.

Even on our recent Birdsville Track / Simpson Desert drive, I was able to take many images, with a couple of flowers that I am still trying to identify and I am in process of a Blog for the Flowers that we came across along the Birdsville Track and out in the desert, and Fiona and I will be heading off again shortly for another great 2 weeks over on Kangaroo Island to capture the spring colours over there.

Last year Val started a great Theme here on the forum, Wildflowers, Photos....
as well as Blogs.

To keep this great feature alive, go through your images and once we all settle back into the usual routine of work and dreaming of where to take our next holidays, there will be new posts added which we hope will encourage more people to travel the many great locations that the best nation in the world has to offer.

Last time there was great interest and many great pictures displayed and it showed that we all love to see something that we do not have in out own back yard.

So keep a look out for new posts and get those wildflower pictures ready.

Take your time, get out of your vehicle and you will be surprised what you can find even in the driest deserts right at your feet.

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Happy Wildflower Hunting.

Cheers

Stephen

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Reply By: Desertrose - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 12:34

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 12:34

The thing I found the most fascinating about the wildflowers we saw in WA was that when you got down to ground level and REALLY looked underneath the obvious wildflowers there seemed to be a whole world of even tinier, sometimes even minuscule flowers underneath.
It was like looking into a miniature world of layers of beauty that seemed to go on forever.
Simply amazing!

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 13:38

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 13:38

Hi Desertrose

That is how I stumbled across a couple of plants in the desert. I went to photograph what I thought was the dominant plant that stood out, and then on closer examination to find 2 other plant that were right there and I had not even seen.

I have to admit from the pictures that have been on display here already on the forum in the last couple of weeks that the Western Australian wildflowers would take some topping and it is on my high list of places to visit when they are in bloom like now.

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

Cheers

Stephen

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Follow Up By: Desertrose - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 13:52

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 13:52

It really is worth seeing if you can catch them over there in WA.
Sometimes though just being anywhere remote, with the absence of all our usual city stimuli (colours, noise, motion etc) it seems that the true intricacies of nature are somehow magnified and seem that much more amazing.
I'd actually forgotten about the possibility of seeing wildflowers out there (we're going to the Silverton gathering and then on further) until you posted this up, so thanks for the reminder! :)
I was too busy being worried about the rats and flies, lol!

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Reply By: Dave B ( BHQ NSW) - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 15:40

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 15:40

I guess you can't really call this a wildflower as such, but the Royal Hakea we saw in Fitzgerald NP in WA was really spectacular.

cheers

Dave
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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 16:14

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 16:14

Hi Dave

Great picture and well worth showing, as firstly I have never seen one and they do not grow here in SA.

Cheers

Stephen

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Follow Up By: Member - John and Val - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 18:08

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 18:08

Hi Dave,

They certainly are spectacular. In my book they are wildflowers - being native plants, and they do have flowers although they are not nearly as showy as the foliage.

Cheers,

Val

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Reply By: Member - Joe F (WA) - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 16:26

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 16:26

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G'day Stephen

I have recently returned home after being out taking images of the beautiful displays of wild flower(s) in various stages of their life cycle, throughout the not so long ago fooded parts of the inland Pilbara, I will endeavour to upload some images onto the Forum page as soon as time permits.

If you won't mind my unprofessional guess at naming your flower ~ it looks very much like a "vetch" ~ they are of the Genus Swainsona.

Often called the "Dwarf swainsona" ~ but as I say its only a guess.

My image shows the front yard at home and some of the "Tall Mulla Mulla" and "Ashburton Pea" that managed to survive the whipper snipper attacks I am prone to, when something green sprouts up along side the driveway.

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 17:06

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 17:06

Hi Joe

Van should be back on deck again soon and will see what she wants done. The display in the front yard looks great and shows how tough they must be after your whipper snipper attacks.

I have put the second purple pea flowers in the Swainsona genus, but just trying to work out which one. Don't tell Val just yet, but if she is kind enough, which I know she is, there are a few that I will need her help with.

Thanks for the reply and looking forward to your Wildflowers, Photos... when you put it up.

Cheers

Stephen

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Follow Up By: kevmac....(WA) - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 18:23

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 18:23

might be slightly off centre but as u can see by recent post just got back from Central Wheatbelt WA and while there one of the wildflowers we came across was a bush(medium) with lots of small white flowers and the distinct smell of vanilla. Was just wondering if anyone had a name of it for us?

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 19:39

Sunday, Sep 11, 2011 at 19:39

Hi Kev

If you put up an image or start a new post, there would be a very good chance that one of the plant experts here on the forum might be able to identify the plant for you.

I did read your post and it sounds like you have a good time away.

Cheers

Stephen

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Follow Up By: Member - John Baas (WA) - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:41

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:41

Hi Stephen.

We reckon it's Swainsona affinis. Saw stacks of it on the upper Connie Sue and Lake Rason tracks. There is also S campylantha out there but it has a taller habit - more a herby shrub than a spreader.

The wildflowers from Warburton down, right through to Mt Jackson in the Great Western woodlands were sensational - took zillions of photographs. Der navigator is identifying about 90% of them progressively, which I think is an excellent effort.

Wildflowers Alice to Papunya, Kintore, Sandy Blight OK, but not as showy.

Cheers.

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:54

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:54

Hi John

Thanks for that. Great to hear you had a great time away....did you end up doing the Simpson loop?

All those wildflowers over in the west, you have me green with envoy.

All the Best.

Stephen

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 21:45

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 21:45

Hi John

I googled Swainsona affinis and there were only a couple of images. The plants in the google look like having only 1 flower per stalk, where as the couple that we came across had at least 7 flowers per stalk.

What do you think.

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Stephen

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Follow Up By: Member - John Baas (WA) - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 22:15

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 22:15

These are what we're basing our ID on Stephen.

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Cheers.

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Reply By: Member - John and Val - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 18:26

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 18:26

Hi Stephen,

Looking forward to your Birdsville Track wildflowers blog. We saw plenty of flowers on our trip but - as I had to keep reminding myself - not the variety that is in WA, and we were possibly a little early for the peak of the flowering.

We are now back home from a very satisfying 10 week, 12,000km trip around the eastern third of the country. Will take a while to do the post trip clean-up of vehicle and contents, and sort through all the photos, but will get some blogs of our trip up before too long I hope. I will probably add some recent photos to some existing wildflower blogs then see what new wildflower topics come to mind.

Sorry I dont know what your attractive little pea flower is - there are a lot of genera of peas and a correct identification requires a look at some very small details.

Cheers,

Val

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 18:54

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 18:54

Hi Val

Great to hear you are back from a fantastic holiday. I was very surprised by the number of plants in flower and have quite a few from the Birdsville Track/Simpson section.

I can do one of two things, run the Photo Blog with many unidentified flowers, or I can wait for your most valuable help, what do you think.

As for the Wildflowers, Photos section here on the forum, I have picked up at least 4 new stories to do, so it could be a very interesting time over the following months.

Great to see you back.

Cheers

Stephen

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Follow Up By: Member - John and Val - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:40

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 20:40

Hi Stephen,

Happy to help with identification as far as I am able, but also I see no real problem running with unidentified flowers - someone else may be able to identify them. The main thing is to encourage travellers to look for wildflowers by showing what is out there and roughly where people can find the wildflowers.

Glad to hear you have a few topics lined up. I should have a better idea of what to do when I have looked through our recent trip photos. I'll give it some thought while I'm getting my garden back into shape.

Also do you recall if there have there been any wildflowers posts or blogs put up over the last couple of months that could be linked to the main wildflowers blog?

Cheers,

Val.

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 21:01

Monday, Sep 12, 2011 at 21:01

Hi Val

I will now start the big job of downsizing the photos and will run it and hopefully others will be able to help identify some of the many that I am now able to.

The there have been a couple over the last couple of weeks, from over in Western Australia, and Hairy put up some very specky images recently.

We revisited the Quandongs twice since you have been away and posted the updated images. Last month, the ones that I am monitoring were still green with only 1 showing a slight colour change, while another lone bush a few kilometres, in the open had some very nice ripe ones. We will revisit my patch in another couple of weeks for further updates.

Best Regards

Stephen

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Follow Up By: Member - John Baas (WA) - Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 20:56

Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 20:56

Hi Stephen.

Re "the big job of downsizing the photos", I use Picassa 'export' function. You can do huge blocks of downsizing with just a few keystrokes - too easy. Email me if you want details. Picassa is a dead simple d/load.

Cheers. J.

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 21:21

Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 21:21

Hi John

Has anyone ever told you that you are more than just a pretty face....LOL

You make me feel a real goose now. I do have Picassa and to be honest, I was not aware that I could batch downsize as quick and easy as that. I owe you a big favour.

I have just downsize over 120 images in far less time than it has taken me to reply to your reply.

Thanks heaps.

Cheers

Stephen

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Reply By: get outmore - Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 04:20

Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 04:20

from this weekend

from this weekend

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Follow Up By: Member - Stephen L (Clare SA) - Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 07:59

Tuesday, Sep 13, 2011 at 07:59

Hi get outmore

We envoy you lucky buggers over in the West. That second to last one looks like what us South Australians call Salvation Jane, a weed but very pretty when in bloom. Without being able to open the image I could be wrong, but you have taken a great group of photos.

Thanks for taking the time to put them up.

Please keep an eye out for the Wildflowers, Photos.... from Val and we will all then be encouraged to add lots more images.

Cheers

Stephen

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