Snap it {up close}

This weeks theme is up close. Being a botanist and married to another, we tend to look at plants up close. That's how we can tell them apart, and whilst I can appreciate a whole forest, or a particularly majestic or gnarled tree, I think the true beauty of plants is most appreciated up close.

I can take no credit for the following images. Rob loves to take macro photos of Tasmanian natives, and has an eye for finding something a little unusual up close. The following are just a selected few (from the 90 images he forwarded to me) and of the several thousand he has.

All images Rob Wiltshire

Friday Flowers

There aren't any new flowers this week in our garden, so I picked one of Rob's photos.

A close up of a Banksia flower.

I'm a bit tired, and so am glad it's the weekend. We're having some friends over for lunch on Sunday, so we've got to get the hut spruced up and cook a few of our favourite entertaining dishes (baked olives, soy roasted almonds, Gougères, rump steak, kipfler potatoes and lemon tart). Hope you have a happy weekend.

Friday Flowers

We've had a quiet week this week at the hut. We're both busy at work. Rob's had a slight cold all week which is making him feel a little droopy. The weather has been a bit cool and damp and grey. So we've just hibernated a bit in the evenings, eating warming foods and reading on the window seat. I can't wait for daylight savings to begin this Sunday!

I thought I'd do a native plant post today. Although I don't work as a botanist at the moment, I can't help myself, as we walked (well raced as the dogs were so keen) along the path to Snug Falls last week, I kept checking with Rob I hadn't lost it. Picking out pretty wildflowers, checking I still knew their names (well at least the name I knew them as, damn taxonomists keep changing them!)

Rob's Monday practical was looking at three families of plants Myrtaceae, Ericaceae and Rhamnaceae. So after our little walk we found a few specimens to take into work the next day.
I thought I'd share a few of my favourite pictures from each family (all photos are Rob's of course!)




This little cutie is Euryomyrtus ramossissima, part of the Myrtaceae family, which is better known for the more showy eucalypts, melaleucas and callistemons. The leaves of this family all have that distinctive eucalypt smell if crushed. This particular plant is common in coastal heath vegetation, and is easy to pick out with the five white/pale pink petals.


The next two are both members of the Ericaceae family, known for their tough, often sharp little leaves. The one above is Leucopogon virgatus, I love their fluffy white petals, or more correctly their hairy corolla tube. Leucopogon is latin for white beard. The petals of all the species in this family are fused into a tube, sometimes they are open like this species, but the tube can also be shut like in Richea.

This even furrier flower is actually another species Pentachondra involucrata found in heathy woodlands.


Finally this little plant is part of the Rhamnaceae family, which contains some of my favourite plants. This is the species Stenanthemum pimeleoides, a rare prostrate shrub found on the east coast. It has tiny little flowers which are quite inconspicuous compared to the larger showy white bracts. Bract is just a term for a modified or specialised leaf associated with a flower (botanists love descriptive terms). Aren't the little heart shaped bracts adorable? I often pick the leaves of plants in this family just to rub their softness against my skin, if they could make lingerie out of them, I'd be the first in line to buy some!

Well there ends today's little botany lesson, hope you have a lovely weekend, so far we don't have any plans and that doesn't worry me a bit!

A botanical smiley face

Something to brighten your day- a botanical smiley face!
This is a cross-section of a Sassafras leaf, stained to show all the different types of cells.

The botanical equivalent of stained glass.

Small and beautiful

Dwarf sundew (Photo Rob Wiltshire)

Native orchid (Photo Rob Wiltshire)

Dew drops (Photo Rob Wiltshire)

Couldn't resist sharing.

I love them.

He's just a little bit clever!

Botanising

Red seeds of Pittosporum bicolor (Photo: Rob Wiltshire)

This week is a little odd for me; I feel I should be at Mt Field National Park immersed in native plants with Rob.

Nothofagus gunnii - deciduous beech or fagus (Photo: Rob Wiltshire)

The week long field trip was the highlight of my undergraduate studies, and in later years I went along to help out with the students. Even though the itinerary is the same every year, there was always a new plant, fruit or flower to find.

Notelaea ligustrina – Native Olive (Photo: Rob Wiltshire)

It’s where I learnt that “the bush” is not one homogenous form, but varies with altitude, rainfall, aspect, soil type or underlying rock. I came to learn what species of plants are indicative of rainforest, dry or wet eucalypt forests, alpine or moorland. How each site is different even within these broad vegetation types. To break up the vegetation into layers: canopy, understory, and groundcover. How plants adapt to the environment with leaf shape and size. Or indeed how many species converge into a cushion or micro herbfield to survive in alpine areas. To identify plants by flowers, colour, leaf shape or smell.

This brings me to a few tools I wish I’d had when I was learning. EucaFlip and TreeFlip; Rob’s two publications to help anyone identify Tasmania’s native eucalypts and other trees. Now this may seem biased, but I think they are quite beautiful. You can find out more about them here. But it doesn’t tell you that upon request, a class set will be distributed to any school in Tasmania for free. Children love them, and are great at using them to identify trees, a wonderful way to get them interested in our native flora. So here’s hoping for a whole generation of Tasmanian botanists.