Wild Flora part 2

I have always liked the look of neatly mown lawns but since discovering the world of wildflowers here the thought of chopping their beautiful heads off is abhorrent.  My driveway and along the verge of the road bordering our property are now looking beautifully raggle taggle. My back yard would be the same but for snakes, we must maintain the grass so we can see any slithery sliders who may casually visit.

I have decided the goats will be never be allowed go into the flower wonderland that is the heath area of our property. Such a turnaround for me, I had considered this area as useless unproductive land ready to unleash the goats on it. 

 Swamp Isotome (Isotoma fluviatilis)

 Vanilla Glycine (Glycine tabacina)

White Flax Lily (Dianella)

Common Centaury (Centaurium erythraea)

It’s pink and pretty, all through our grass in the driveway and paddock. Centaury is a herb, some of its uses is as a tonic and antiseptic.  A 10^th century poem by Macer mentioned it as being powerful against ‘wykked speryts’. According to Nicholas Culpepper an English botanist, herbalist, physician, and astrologer of the 17^th century  the herb is "wholesome but not toothsome" (being bitter). He reckons a decoction of centaury dropped into the ears cleanses them of worms...... Centaury also takes away all freckles, spots and marks on the skin when being washed with it.  There you go; as a beauty therapist I spend a fortune on fancy creams when all I need do is harvest my driveway! 

Small St. John’s Wort  (Hypericum gramineum) this is a native not the weed

Sun Orchid (Thelymitra pauciflora)

 Daphne Heath (Brachyloma daphnoides)

I only found two of these shrubs and they had just about finished flowering. There are probably many more Daphne Heath shrubs in our grassy woodland but as they weren’t in flower I wouldn’t recognise them. 

Grassland wood sorrel (Oxalis perennans)

 Juniper leaf grevillea (Grevillea juniperina)

 Pale Grass Lily (Caesia Parviflora)

Many flowered mat-rush (Lomandra multiflora) 

Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis)

“No heart can think, no tongue can tell,

The virtues of the Pimpernel.”

Another herb being a diuretic, expectorant, and the ancient Greeks used it for diseases of the eyes.  French women loved the distilled Pimpernel to cleanse their skin from any roughness, deformity or discolouration. Culpepper recommended it for bites of mad dogs and to dispel sadness.  Of course it also prevents witchcraft!

Leafy Bitter Pea (Daviesia mimosoides)

There are many ‘Peas’ flowering in spring, they are very showy little plants ranging from orange and red, yellow with red and this beautiful salmon version.

 Wattle mat-rush (Lomandra filiformis)

Purple Violet (Viola betonicifolia)

Gorgeous little violets found all through our grassy woodland.

Shrubby rice flower (Pimelea  linifolia)

 Stinking pennywort (hydrocotyle laxiflora)
Found in the shade of trees or amongst rocks, they really do have a foul scent!

Mitre Weed flower (Mitrasacme polymorpha)

I really want to know why we have the word ‘weed’ in this one’s name, it is noted as a perennial herb.  The photo doesn’t do it justice; it is really pretty, whether as a single flower popping up or in a clump. The leaves grow at the base of the plant. Buds start out as a beautiful salmon pink colour sitting at the end of a long delicate stem,  opening to the white flower which is about the size of my little finger nail.

Haresfoot Clover (Trifolium arvense)

Well I guess if I have to have what is considered a weed – clover – it may as well be a pretty one. Funny how in the city we consider all clover as weeds in our lawn but in the paddocks some clovers are desirable as a soil building plant,  nodules on the roots fix nitrogen in the soil. 

Pale Everlasting (Helichrysum rutidolepis)

Melaleuca

Spiny headed Mat-rush ((Lomandra longifolia)

Tiger Orchid (Diuris sulphurea)

Leaf Daisy ((Brachyscome rigidula)

Slender Bottle Daisy (Lagenophora gracilis)

Photos are deceiving! This daisy is so tiny, being smaller than my little finger nail.

Austral Hounds Tongue (Cynoglossum australe)

Think this one might be a problem.  The description says it has tiny hooks that attach to clothing therefore gets spread.  Just as well I only found a few plants in one spot where we had a burn off fire. I will be revisiting to pull them out.

Clustered Everlasting (Chryscephalum semipapappoeum)

Clusters of 20 flowers or more with a flattened top at the end of erect stems. I think rabbits like eating these, I went back to take another photo when the flower heads had opened but they had been chomped off and just the stalk remained. 

Common Beard Heath (Leucopogon virgatus)

This flower is so tiny three or four of them would fit on my little finger nail!! The flower petals are surrounded by a fringe.

Common Everlasting (Chrysocephalum apiculatum)

Sisyrinchium iridifoium

Cream and the larger white version, they appear to be considered a grassland weed. I keep using the analogy of my little finger nail for size comparison, again three of the cream ones would fit my small nail; the white version is much larger.

No idea!

Again I don’t know the name of this one found in the heath area.

Prickly Tee Tree (Leptospermum continentale ?)

Name Please! Tiny mauve/blue flowers found in the heath area.

No Idea no.2

The flower on the reeds on the dams

The white parts of the flower head look like crazed worms!

Bidgee Widgee (Acaena novae-zelandiae)

Starts off as a unusual flower but it turns into a spiny burr weed, which can be widely dispersed by sticking to animals coats and to clothing.  I must look at eradication methods for this one, it is all over a steep hill and I sure don’t want burr weeds all over the farm.  Although I read it provides seed for Rosellas, which is probably how it is spread in the first place. 

Black Wattle Blossom (Acacia mearnsii)

I haven't been able to identify this one.  Must be a weed, or maybe a member of the yarrow family, but I am tending towards ‘weed' as it is absolutely all over our property. A tiny low growing mat.

Summer is now here so I now eagerly await what blooms the season may bring.