Pictured above: Leschenaultia tubiflora - this photo shows a plant that is partially pollinated.
It turns from white to red after pollination.
It turns from white to red after pollination.
Hello everybody living locally to Tarin Rock Nature Reserve. I hope that you have been able to visit the reserve this spring. Both September and October were excellent for viewing wildflowers and have kept me really busy with processing all my plant samples and photos.
I have lodged 78 plant species with the Western Australian herbarium to date and there are probably the same number to be lodged at a later date. That means that I am finding plants in the reserve that have not been recorded from there before. I am also making some exciting discoveries of plants that are classed as priority species. These are plants from which there are not many locations in Western Australia that they have been recorded from. It is my intention that I will provide photos of these priority species in the book.
So, in October I recorded more than 100 flowering plant species in 5 days, and a frog. My last visit to the reserve was shorter as the spring flowering season is mostly over. There are still many flowering plants to be found especially within the groups of the eucalyptus, melaleucas, goodeniaceae and verticordias. The trigger plants were also flowering at this time and some are really tiny. They catapult pollen onto the back of any visiting insect. The ‘catapult’ resets itself in order to repeat the action with the next visiting insect. This month I was also fortunate enough to get a close-up view of a young wedge-tailed eagle.
My next visit will be 15 to 18 December. If anybody wants to come along, let me know and we can meet up on site. You can reach me by email at tarinrockbook@gmail.com or by phone on 0439978550.
Article by Jolanda Keeble
I have lodged 78 plant species with the Western Australian herbarium to date and there are probably the same number to be lodged at a later date. That means that I am finding plants in the reserve that have not been recorded from there before. I am also making some exciting discoveries of plants that are classed as priority species. These are plants from which there are not many locations in Western Australia that they have been recorded from. It is my intention that I will provide photos of these priority species in the book.
So, in October I recorded more than 100 flowering plant species in 5 days, and a frog. My last visit to the reserve was shorter as the spring flowering season is mostly over. There are still many flowering plants to be found especially within the groups of the eucalyptus, melaleucas, goodeniaceae and verticordias. The trigger plants were also flowering at this time and some are really tiny. They catapult pollen onto the back of any visiting insect. The ‘catapult’ resets itself in order to repeat the action with the next visiting insect. This month I was also fortunate enough to get a close-up view of a young wedge-tailed eagle.
My next visit will be 15 to 18 December. If anybody wants to come along, let me know and we can meet up on site. You can reach me by email at tarinrockbook@gmail.com or by phone on 0439978550.
Article by Jolanda Keeble
Pictured below: Stylidium amphora (trigger plant). This photo of the trigger plant shows the ‘catapult’ and if you look close, there is an insect flying towards the left hand flower.
Pictured below left: Jacksonia capitata Pictured below right: Wedge-tailed Eagle
 |  |
RSS Feed
