Hi all, I hope you and yours are doing well. I love this time of year - spring in Western Australia. With pleasant temperatures and blue skys, making it a perfect time to get out and walk in the bush to see the wildflowers.
Today I am sharing a few from the last month or so at Manea Reserve which is located on the edge of Bunbury, only about 15 minutes from where I live. I have talked about Manea's orchids and wildflowers before. It is a place we visit every couple of weeks during spring, as some of the flowers, especially the orchids, come and go very quickly.
There is an easy 2.4km compacted limestone path which winds through the park - allow at least one hour, more if you are stopping to take photos. They ask you not to leave the path, so as not to trample on small plants, and also as the park has a problem with Dieback (Phytophthora) which is easily spread on the soles of shoes. Please clean your shoes at the boot cleaning stations.
The entrance to the park is on the corner of Sommerville Drive and Winthrop Avenue, in the suburb of College Grove.
There are many orchid varieities in Manea. Below is one of the most spectacular - the Blue Lady orchid - Thelymitra crinita
These are sun orchids - Thelymitra - of which there are many varieties so similar to each other to my eye.
One of the white spider orchid varieties
Below we have clockwise from top left - Enamel orchid, Pink Fairy orchid, Donkey orchid, and Cowslip orchid
Not flowering this time of year, but I thought I would include it, hiding in the leaf matter, the tiny Helmet orchid - Corysanthes recurva
These are trigger plants -
And a few other flowers - top left is the Pixie Mop from the Petrophile family, top right I think is Pepper and Salt, bottom right is one of the Butter Cups - Hibbertia, and bottom left a drying flower head.
Below on the left we have two of the pea family, top right are one of my favourites - Orange Stars - Hibbertia stellaris, and bottom right is Holly Leaf Banksia - Banksia ilicifolia
This is the flower of the Bull Banksia tree - Banksia grandis - on the left in bud, and on the right the flower head.
And because I know you love seeing our wildflife, I will risk sharing photos I've shared before -
When you hear screeching look up - it is most likely a Forest Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo, found in jarrah, marri and karri forests, it is listed as Vulnerable in Western Australia. They love to eat hard seed pods of eucalypts, casuarinas and banksias, using its strong beak to tear them open. Their red/orange stripes on their tail are magnificent to see in flight - but hard to capture with a camera. From what I have read this is a female because of the yellow spots on its head and the yellow/orange stripes on its chest.
And Western Grey Kangaroo, mummy with a joey in her pouch -
mother and youngster. Please keep your dogs on a lead.
I also use the book - Orchids of South-West Australia by Noel Hffman, Andrew Browns and Justin Brown.
And Dr Eddy Wajon's series of Colour Guides to Spring Wildflowers of Western Australia.
Here are a few previous posts I've written about orchids and wildflowers, if you would like to see more.
Thank you so much for stopping by. I appreciate every one of you and value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. I will try to visit your blogs in return. Have a wonderful week.
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Until then, enjoy your day...Life only comes around once, so do what makes you happy, be kind, and be with people who make you smile.
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Such a gorgeous collection of spring wildflowers and orchids! The Blue Lady and white spider orchids are particularly stunning.
ReplyDeleteSo fun to enjoy your beautiful Spring in our rapidly cooling October ! Thank you for sharing …I love the flowers.
ReplyDeleteHello Jill,
ReplyDeleteThe spring flowers are all gorgeous. I love the orchids. Great sighting and photo of the Cockatoo and the kangaroos are cute. The view of the path looks wonderful. Thank you for linking up and sharing your post. Take care, have a great day and a happy weekend! PS, thank you for leaving me a comment.
Everything about this post makes me nostalgia for Australia. I had planned a third visit in 2020, but COVID put an end to that, and I doubt now that it will ever happen again.
ReplyDeleteJill, your images of the local wildflowers are fabulous, for me they look exotic. I would love to visit Australia, but the trip would be a killer. Thanks for showing me the sights.
ReplyDeletelike the trip for us from Australia to Europe or the Americas. smile.
DeleteI saw your comment on Eileen's blog. We use the Merlin app to ID birds. It's pretty good for North American birds, I don't know how it is for yours. A lovely blog! (ツ) from Jenn Jilks , ON, Canada!
ReplyDeletethanks for that. I will get my hubbie to check it out. Thanks for visiting.
DeleteThe orchids are breathtaking and there are so many! WOW! Love the kangaroos....I know we all do! They are one of our favorite animals in the zoo here in the US!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful flowers. Especially the orchids!
ReplyDelete/Irene
Yes Jill, thoroughly enjoyed these beautiful photos of another special area in WA.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, wild plants are given far too little attention. As a child, I knew many of them; they used to grow mainly on a large meadow next to my grandparents’ house in the countryside. I really miss them! Nowadays, monoculture prevails, which is the result of human intervention.
ReplyDeleteI’m absolutely thrilled by your discoveries and am particularly delighted that you’re sharing this post on MosaicMonday.
Thank you very much for sharing. Greetings by Heidrun 🎃
Such lovely photos and what a wonderful variety of wildflowers. The orchids are beautiful, and I love the added bonus of the cockatoo and kangaroos. Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful and unique wildflowers and the kangaroos and cockatoo were fun to see!
ReplyDeleteThose flowers are all beautiful and how wonderful to live so close to the reserve! How cool to see the mama kangaroo!
ReplyDeleteStunning! Of course I until now have only seen the standard purple orchid that grown in the US, and is sold by the pot in many grocery store plant displays. I loved seeing the Joey with Mom!
ReplyDeleteYou certainly won't find our wild orchids in a plant pot. They are very picky and require specific soil and conditions.
DeleteSo many gorgeous varieties of orchids! Those Blue Lady orchids are amazing.
ReplyDeleteYour pictures are amazing- thanks for sharing so many of the varieties of orchids and wildflowers that you saw at the park. What a neat sounding place. Cleaning off your shoes- I've never heard of a park requesting that but it does make sense if shoes are how bacteria is introduced to the area. Such awesome wildlife as well!
ReplyDelete