Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum

Plant Identification => Plant Identification Questions and Answers => Topic started by: Diane Whitehead on March 05, 2011, 06:17:30 AM

Title: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Diane Whitehead on March 05, 2011, 06:17:30 AM
I will be giving a talk in a few days and find I have not identified
all my pictures.  I thought of using these, but have no idea what
they are.
Well, if I look through enough books, I can find the
names.  The white one is Milkmaids, a Burchardia, and the yellow
and white, thanks to Lesley, is a Conostylis.
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Diane Whitehead on March 05, 2011, 06:29:19 AM
another
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Lesley Cox on March 05, 2011, 09:04:19 PM
Can't help at all sorry Diane. They look nice but most Australians in New Zealand are from the east or south east.
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Lesley Cox on March 05, 2011, 09:10:31 PM
Perhaps the yellow is a Conostylis, which I suggest as I can see hairiness on the flowers. Just remembered I had a book of Western Australian Wildflowers, by one M K Morecombe. Though it has gorgeous pictures, there's nothing at all like any of yours, except I did wonder if the white could be a Verticordia. Fermi or Rob in Tasmania would be better able to help.

And in fact, it seems we do, in NZ, have a lot of WA flowers growing here.
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Diane Whitehead on March 05, 2011, 09:54:15 PM
Thanks, Lesley.  I just looked up Conostylis and it does look like one.
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Diane Whitehead on March 05, 2011, 11:04:42 PM
I found the white sphere - a Dasypogon.  I thought it had a similar
look to Xanthorrhoea, so I looked up it up, and there was mine on
the same page.

One more to go.

I do much better at identifying my plants when I am driving around
North America.  I take my computer and a stack of books, and I
label all my pictures every night.

When I fly overseas, I don't take even a laptop, and I can't take many
books (all that glossy paper in the flower and bird books makes them
really heavy).  Then I return home, full of good intentions, but also
need to catch up on everything that should have been done while I was
away.  And then I forget until someone asks me to speak.

I'm not sure how to solve it, though I did a bit better on my latest African
trip.  I took a tiny whiteboard and a marker.  I wrote the plant name
and photographed it just before I started photographing the flowers.  That
worked sometimes, till I didn't know the name, or it started to rain.
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: ranunculus on March 07, 2011, 09:02:53 PM
I took a tiny whiteboard and a marker.  I wrote the plant name
and photographed it just before I started photographing the flowers.  That
worked sometimes, till I didn't know the name, or it started to rain.

You paint an amusing image, Diane ... a water colour!!!   :D
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Diane Whitehead on March 07, 2011, 11:14:40 PM
One taken before the rains started.
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: Diane Whitehead on March 09, 2011, 02:37:34 AM
Well, my desire to grow these plants has been re-ignited by looking through
all my photos.  I just received a box of 96 packets of seeds from Silverhill
in South Africa.  I think it is long since time that I put in an order to
Nindethana in Australia.

However, I can't order without names, I've browsed my 25 Australian books,
and here are two I can't find.  I thought one might be a Croninia, but I can't
find much information about that genus.  It is interesting in bud, and I thought
it might be one of the Hakea/Melaleuca clan, till I noticed a few open flowers
at the end of those spiky tubes.
Title: Re: Southwestern Australians
Post by: David Lyttle on March 17, 2011, 10:29:16 AM
The western Australian flora is not from this planet. Try Pimelea for the the fuzzy pink tubes though it is a guess on my part.
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