Some of our trees are putting on a great display at the moment. Along the clifftops Drooping Sheoaks, Allocasuarina verticillata, are providing an Australian version of autumn. The male trees have wonderful swaying orange tassels shining in the muted autumn sunlight on the ends of the ribbed branchlets. The female trees’ small orange globular flowers are far less obvious. Even harder to find are the tiny pointed leaves, which are revealed looking like a tiny crown when the nodes on the branchlets are snapped apart.
Drooping Sheoak
Our iconic Ironbarks, Eucalyptus tricarpa, are flowering profusely, carpeting the ground below them with starburst-like trios of flowers.
Ironbark tree
These are mostly cream, but occasionally pale pink. Deep pink flowers are found on their northern relative, Red Ironbark, Eucalyptus sideroxylon.
Ironbark flowers
I was quite surprised to find some of our endemic Messmates, Eucalyptus obliqua, still in flower with one bloom being pollinated by a Bee Fly.
Ellinor Campbell