Local flora picture notes

1. Trigger plants (genus Stylidium): These small plants grow on our farm. The genus is characterised by the bilobed flowers which have a bent "trigger" on one side - when an insect alights on the centre of the flower the trigger flicks over and deposits a patch of pollen on the insect's back.

2. Beaufortia: A summer-flowering apricot to red flowered bush which occurs in sandy and swampy areas around Denmark.

3. Sundew (Drosera sp.): These small delicate vine-like plants have plain white flowers, but their interesting characteristic is their modified leaves. These have hairs covered with a sticky secretion which traps insects and thereby provides nitrogen and other nutrients for the plant. They (and other terrestrial species; see below) are common on our farm.

4. A lily (blind grass or blue grass lily?): Small plant which flowers in spring.

5. Sundew (Drosera sp.): This is a terrestrial species, very common on moist ground, but each plant is only around one centimetre across. The simple but beautiful apricot-coloured flowers are borne on a thin stem which holds them well above the leaves, presumably to minimise the chance of an insect carrying pollen being trapped before it alights on the flower.

6. Cottonhead (genus Conostylis): These plants are apparently related to kangaroo paws but obviously superficially do not resemble them (not that any other plant does!).