Never mind the weather

Whatever the weather - and it wasn't bad this morning - it is always nice under the canopy in our scrub. Five of us were out working this morning.
We found a Parsonsia leichhardtii in flower.

[click on the photo to see the flower in detail.]
When you are visiting, have a look at the corky bark on the vine.
The Silver Croton is also in bud and, above us while we had smoko, we found the Scrub Wilga in flower.

Down in the creek the native plumbago is doing well.

Have you had a look at the Mistletoes on the Flindersia on the NW corner?

At the working bee

There were several plants of interest in Franke Scrub last week.
The hairy boonaree, Alectryon pubescens, was putting out a few of its showy fruits. This is not a common plant in this district, and one of the things which makes Franke Scrub special. It resembles the closely related common scrub boonaree, but has larger leaves and fruits.

The key distinguishing factor is the hairiness of the capsule. Here you can see how it has been burst open by the swelling of the red “cockscomb” aril.

This muttonwood (Rapanea variabilis) is covered with buds, which will take months to ripen into brownish flowers, then be followed by pretty purple-blue fruits - all clinging to the branchlet in the distinctive muttonwood way.

One of the scrub wilgas (Geijera salicifolia) was putting out a few flowers, too. We’ll see more of these over the next few months.
Lots of little birds are to be seen in the scrub at the moment, attracted by the pools of water down in the creek. They will appreciate the food provided by the wilgas, whose fragrant flowers attract little insects.
Trish Gardner

A prowl in early August found -

We didn't have enough time at our working bee last week for a good prowl around in the scrub to see what was there. There were a few things worthy of comment, however.

Two more plants to tick off, on our original plant list - native nettles, Urtica incisa, and native spinach, Tetragonia tetragonioides, which hadn't been recently confirmed.

Two new species to add to the list.
Further poking about in the scrub turned up a second new vine for our list, the Burney Vine,
Malaisia scandens, and Variable Mistletoe, Amyema congener, on a Scrub Boonaree, Alectryon diversifolium.
This mistletoe is just coming into flower, confirming my ID with its characteristic green and red flowers. Our plants are a little unusual in that the red bases of the flowers are a very deep shade of red.

I collected a chrysalis off one of the mistletoes, expecting it to of a jezabel butterfly, (as this species normally breeds on mistletoes). Sure enough, the adult emerged a few days later and was a beautiful black Jezabel, Delias nigrina.

Other finds:

Scrub Wilga, Geijera salicifolia, is in bud, and will soon be in flower. Don't forget to crush a leaf and enjoy the fragrance as you go past.

Bead Bush, Spartothamnella juncea, thick with its little orange fruits.

Spiny Acalypha Acalypha capillipes, in flower. Not particularly showy,
but nonetheless interesting to see.

The bright blue fruits of Elaeocarpus obovatus are scattered about on the forest floor, still quite fresh.
[contributed by Trish]