Keep a lookout on your walks and you may be pleasantly surprised. Cranberry Heath, Styphelia humifusa (formerly Astroloma humifusum), has striking bright red narrow tubular flowers scattered among its bluish-green, mat-like foliage.

Cranberry Heath

Sandhill Sword-sedge, Lepidosperma sieberi, has almost feathery cream and brown flowerheads.

Sandhill Sword-sedge

Prickly Broom-heath, Monotoca scoparia, requires detective work to see and identify the small cream male and female flowers on different bushes. The male flowers are slightly larger.

Our waterways are worth a look. The open water in the Allen Noble Sanctuary is ringed by a dense collar of spikey pink flowers of Slender Knotweed, Persicaria decipiens. The succulent Beaded Glasswort, Salicornia quinqueflora, is giving our saline river mouth an autumnal glow. The green new growth is turning red due to salt level increase over the summer.

Beaded Glasswort

A close look may also reveal the quite delightful delicate mauve and yellow butterfly-like blooms of Creeping Monkey-flower, Thyridia repens.

Beaded Glasswort with Creeping Monkey-flower

Ellinor Campbell