Today it was Thursday BBQ at CSIRO Entomology, but it was also the first chance Id had this week to take my camera along to the gardens - having had a couple of wet days at the start of the week I hadn't brought it along. The weather was glorious, so I was torn between being a social entomologist (a rare thing!) and going on my usual wanders. So, I decided to do both! First, beer and BBQ...
...second, a quick sprint around with my camera to see what I could see! There were plenty of
Crimson Rosellas Platycercus elegans about, quite a bit of argy bargy seemed to be going on, though it isn't breeding season so I'm not sure why!
I stayed quite close to the CSIRO gate as I was short on time, but good fortune led me to wander amongst the Grevilleas, many of which are beginning to flower beautifully (apparently winter to early spring would be the peak flowering period). The Grevilleas are intricate formations of delicate clustered flowers growing on shrubs, very popular in Australian gardens. According to the excellent
Botanical garden facts on the genus,
"Grevillea is named after Charles Francis Greville who was one of the founders of the Royal Horticultural Society in 1804. There are over 300 species in the genus, most of which are endemic to Australia but a few species occur in Papua New Guinea and islands to Australia's north".
I also spotted a couple of lovely flowers without labels, the yellow ones in the Grevillea section and the other in the
Teleopea section - neither of which belong there I don't think?!
Having now read the
ANBG weekly update on what is in flower, I've deduced that the yellow flower is probably
Acacia subulata.
As I was leaving, a little flock of
Choughs Corcorax melanorhamphos were hanging around the gate - they are lively little fellows, although boldly coming right up to glare at me with their red demonic eyes it was hard to get a good picture. Although sinister looking they are really quite inquisitive friendly chaps:
but they do look demonic!
I have now found a label on the unidentified flower in this post. It is in fact Grevillea Newbeyi a Grevillea confined to a relatively small area of Western Australia.
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