NSW Waratah - locally selected form

This is a seedling Waratah I was given by Mr Paul Nixon, a famous selector of the Brimstone Collection series of selected varieties of NSW Waratahs. This plant was grown from wild collected seed, so it is a genuine Telopea speciosissima - not a hybrid. This is apparent from the flower shape, and the heavily serrated leaves.
 
These Waratahs are local to the Sandstone plateau just below Robertson, near Kangaloon, and the points further north. They are not native to the Robertson red basalt soil, however, they thrive in this soil. However, as they are local plants (to the area) and as they do so well here, Robertson is proud to feature Waratahs in public and private gardens in the village. 

 Not surprisingly, I can report that the wild Waratahs in the local "bush" are starting to flower - so keep an eye out, if you are down on the sandstone plateau around Carrington Falls and Kangaloon.

Please remember that these plants are wild, and are protected, so enjoy them but please do not cut them - leave them to seed and propagate themselves as Nature intends.

Springtime in Robertson - photos and coming Weekend Events

I was asked to take photos of the Waratahs in the Robertson Common, which is the precinct of Robertson Heritage Railway Station

Magnificent Waratah flower
Telopea speciosissima - NSW Waratah
Probably the "Cultivar" known as Fire and Brimstone
which comes from the local (Kangaloon) catchment areas.

I have uploaded a bunch of photos I took while walking around the main streets of the Village.

Some are of common garden plants, (some would call them "weeds").
Forget Me Nots, Herb Robert, "Honesty" (Lunaria) and then some photos of the Cherry Trees in Hoddle Street (otherwise known as the Illawarra Highway). But it is the Waratahs which steal the show.

Double-flowered Cherry Blossoms
in the main street of Robertson

In between, there are photos of the Railway Buildings (which are recognised as being of historic significance), and also the Fettlers Shed Gallery.

https://picasaweb.google.com/113268294402913437731/SpringtimeInRobertson11October2012

This weekend will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the opening of the "Mountain Railway" - from Port Kembla (the steel works) to Berrima Limestone quarry, originally owned by Sir Cecil Hoskins.
I still find it extraordinary that Sir Cecil, a director of the Australian Iron and Steel managed to persuade the State Government to pay for the railway line between his Limestone Quarry and his steel mill and port at Port Kembla. And the knighted him for his efforts!

• "After complex negotiations in 1927 the State government agreed conditionally to build a railway connecting Port Kembla with the main southern line at Moss Vale, and construction of a blast-furnace and deep-water wharf began."

In these days, I cannot imagine such a deal going through. Instead of giving Sir Cecil a knighthood, he would probably be charged with insider trading or something.
However, this "deal" however shady it might seem to me, today, would probably seem completely natural and even desirable to the likes of Gina Rinehart or Clive Palmer.

Anyway, for better or worse the Railway runs through Robertson (almost exclusively as a Freight line these days),  and as a Tourist line for special occasions, such as this weekend.

 See the details on the Robertson website.

 There will be Open Gardens you can enjoy visiting too.

a delightful delicate pale pink
Double-flowered Cherry Blossom

Garden plants in Springtime - from Robbo

An assortment of garden plants from my garden and some others from friends gardens.
Spring is about to reach its floristic best in Robertson.

Waratah "Shady Lady Red"
This plant flowers prolifically>
Best seen in late afternoon light.

Waratah "Shady Lady Red"
Single flower

English Lawn Daisies
Bellis perennis
ON nature strip outside the Anglican Church

Bellis perennis - close up.

Malianthus major - bud

Melianthus major - flower head on tall stem
About 3 metres tall.

Red Rhododendron
growing in another garden (not mine)

Reticulata Camellia - hybrid
Possibly "Drama Girl"
(Photo taken courtesy of Pam)

Dorrigo Waratahs at Robertson Heritage Railway Station

Dorrigo Waratah makes a spectacular plant.

These outstanding Dorrigo Waratah plants make a fine summer display at the Robertson Heritage Railway Station.

Dorrigo Waratah at Robertson Heritage Railway Station

The NSW Waratah, Telopea speciosissima and its cultivars, and some hybrid Waratahs are also grown at the Robertson Railway Station, but they flower around the October Long Weekend (actually at the end of September, and early October).

As the name "Dorrigo Waratah" suggests, these plants grow naturally "in warm-temperate rainforest or rarely in wet sclerophyll forest, on escarpment ranges above 700 m altitude, Missabotti, Dorrigo and Mt Hyland areas (of NSW), and the McPherson Range", (SE  Qld). (Source: PlantNET) But as cultivated plants, they thrive out in the open in Robertson. Our natural habitat is classed as "cool-temperate", so maybe the adjustment to growing them in the open compensates for our lower summer temperatures.

Dorrigo Waratahs cultivated in the open, at Robertson

Their scientific name is Alloxylon pinnatum. They are related to the traditional Australian Waratahs (Telopea spp.) and Oreocallis and Chilean Firetree (Embothrium coccineum) from South America. Almost all these species have red terminal flowers, and hence the subtribe's origin and floral appearance most likely predates the splitting of Gondwana into Australia, Antarctica, and South America over 60 million years ago." (Source: Wikipedia)

Dorrigo Waratah - the whole plant makes a great display

Dorrigo Waratah flowers are less "showy" than the NSW Waratah

The leaf of the Dorrigo Waratah reveals its rainforest heritage - fresh green and soft.

Honey Bee making a Bee Line for the Dorrigo Waratah flower.

These plants have been grown by local Waratah enthusiast, Dr David Tranter, who has been largely responsible for the landscaping of the  Robertson Heritage Railway Station precinct. A great contribution to the local community.

Its Springtime in Kangaloon

How quickly things change. Several weeks ago only the very early spring wildflowers were evident. Then we had a three-week cold snap and everything just seemed to stop.

There is now so much happening out in the Sandstone-based forest at Kangaloon, it is hard to keep up with what is going on. I might take as many as 250 photos in a few hours, of many beautiful native plants.

Some I take just to try to document the species of the region. Very few of these images make to to my Blog.

Some, like this one, do make it to the Blog,
for reasons of the odd things which they show us.

In this case, it is a non-perfect Waratah. 

As the Waratah flowers mature, they ripen sequentially,
from the base of the inflorescence.

The Rosellas know this, and as the flowers full with nectar, 

the Rosellas chew off  the sweet flowers
(but from the base of the inflorescence up).
The non-chewed flowers (at the top) are not yet "ripe".
That's what you can see in this image.
The white bits are the "stumps" of the flowers which have been chewed off.

Waratah - chewed by Rosellas

How do I know that?

Well here's the evidence.

Flowers of Waratah on ground under the plant - dropped by Rosellas

The sad thing is that this defeats the pollination process of the Waratahs.

While the local wild Waratahs are magnificently tasty (apparently), the Native Irises (Patersonias) are just flowering wildly (as long as it is a sunny morning).

small flowered Patersonia sp. in dry area, and in full sun

Large flowered, tall Patersonia sp. in moist forest.

By contrast, this is a tiny Orchid with a bronze colouration. 

It is very hard to find amongst the grass.

It is called "Stegostyla transitoria"

It is one of two "bronze-coloured Caladenias" in Kangaloon in flower at present.

Stegostyla transitoria (note the "warty"calli on the labellum)

a low angle view of Stegostyla transitoria

 A close-up view of the "warty" labellum of this species.

Stegostyla transitoria - close-up of flower

A perfect Waratah

Despite our clever hybidising techniques, which have greatly increased the floriferousness of the modern hybrid Waratahs, we have not improved the form of the flower of the NSW Waratah, Telopea speciosissima

These are several of the many Waratahs in flower in the East Kangaloon area, just north from Robertson.
Waratahs grow well in Robertson as cultivated plants.They are a feature of our gardens, and our Parks and the local Railway Heritage Railway Station.

However, in my opinion, nothing can beat the perfect form of the wild Waratah.

NSW Waratah - with the bracts still half closed

Here is what I regard as a perfect Waratah flower. 

The bracts are fully open.

NSW Waratah - Telopea speciosissima

Here is the same flower image, cropped a little to show the details.

Cropped image to show tubular flowers of the NSW Waratah

That image shows some of the lower flowers just opening.
The Waratah "flower" is actually a "conflorescence" - a head of flowers.
Each individual flower is tubular in shape, with the inner "stigma" protruding as the flower matures.

For details of the Waratah flower structure, please visit that previous Blog on the subject.

Orchid pollination - in progress.

Dear Reader.
What is my catch cry? - "Never leave home without your camera, Denis!"

What did I do today?
Yes, that's right - left home without my camera.
How stupid am I?
(Answers to that question may or may not be published, Dear reader).

I know you don't need an explanation, but my brother Brendan and I were intending to visit a friend, but he was not home, so we decided to take a quick drive to look at some Waratahs in the bush.

While out, we looked at the Waratahs and also some Orchids (of course).

Now I had photographed these Orchids on the weekend, and so (I thought) I did not need my camera anyway.

You know the rest, already, or can guess it, Dear Reader!

*****

Fortunately, my brother had his little "point and shoot" camera with him, so we have some images - but not as nice as I would have liked, but far better than the ones I could not take (with my camera sitting on my bed at home).

I went looking to show Brendan a case moth I had seen busy devouring an Orchid. Now for an Orchid fancier, there are few things more insulting than seeing a caterpillar devouring one's favourite flowers. This is one of the many Orchids in the group known as "Golden Moth" Orchids. It is Diuris chryseopsis - the "Snake Orchid"

A "Case Moth" devouring my beloved Orchid.
Technically, it is the caterpillar of the Case Moth
The Caterpillar uses silk to encases itself
with tiny bits of grass (in this example).
That shields the little bugger while it happily destroys the flower!
In this case it has webbed two flowers (on the one stem) together.

Next we found this European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
It was climbing all over a particular Orchid flower.
On close examination it had the Orchid's "pollinia" stuck on its "nose".
(Insects do not have "noses" for breathing, as we do.)
There is a "V-shaped" creamy yellow object on the front of its head.
David Jones says in his book that he pollen of Diuris Orchids is
a soft mealy substance.
Here it is again, a bit closer, this time.
The V-shaped object is clearly visible,
pointing away from the Bee's "nose".
Here you can see the Bee wandering around.
It is facing away from the camera.
The pollinia are still visible to the top-right of the Bee.
Underneath the Bee, in another flower on the same plant,
is a little brown beetle totally drunk on whatever chemicals
the Orchid produces to attract insects.
It did not move the whole time we watched the Bee,
including when the Bee climbed into the same flower.
And for good measure, in another flower, there was a native black Bee.

I cannot swear to this a being true, but it looks to me that this Bee has something white stuck on its rear end.
Could that be several pieces of Orchid pollinia?
The "jury is out" on that question.

*****
Q and A

• Q. So, dear reader - what is the moral of today's story?
• A. Never leave home without your damned Camera, Denis!

Oh, by the way, this is one of the wild Waratah plants
which we went out in the bush to see.
A perfect specimen of Telopea speciosissima
By the way, lest I appear ungrateful
I should thank my brother, Brendan
for supplying these photos.

Helicia glabriflora - in Robertson (typo corrected)

Helicia glabriflora is yet another plant which has its southern-most range in the Illawarra. In fact, this tree is reported to be the most southerly member of the species - growing here by itself here in Robertson. A loner.

I photographed this tree when in flower, in February last year, which is more or less its normal time, it seems. But when I was checking Tangle-root Orchids the other day, I noticed that this tree was in flower - which surprised me, as I remember it as flowering in high summer, normally.

It also has some fruit on it, which are not yet ripe, as they turn bright blue when ripe. But the fact that it successfully set fruit last year is encouraging.

This plant is in the Proteaceae tribe, but it does not look at all like its normal southern relatives. It is a rainforest tree and in Robertson is hard to distinguish from the neighbouring Sassafras trees, which have similarly bright green, shiny leaves. Its flowers (inflorescences) look nothing like the Waratahs or Grevilleas which we tend to think of as "typical Proteaceae" plants. But in truth, there is no such thing.

Here are the unopened buds on a flowering stem (inflorescence).

In fact the flowers and fruit of the Helicia most closely resemble (in structure) the Persoonia family. Many members of the Proteaceae tribe are tropical plants, which look very different from our most familiar members of the tribe. If you remember that the nut-bearing plant, the Macadamia, is a tropical Proteaceae plant, that will give you some idea of the diversity of this tribe of plants.

Opened flowers on the full inflorescence (stem)
Compare this with the photo of the Macadamia

Here are two (paired) flowers arising beside eachother on the flower stem.
This is typical of many members of the Grevilleoideae.
I have shown this same feature in Grevillea flowers

This pair of flowers has pollen dusted onto their Stigmas.
These plants use the Stigma, (the female part of the flower) to act as
the "pollen presenter" as in this case. The pollen is ready to be picked up by a bird or an insect, to be taken to another flower.

Here is a single flower (removed from its paired flower - to simplify the image). The outer skin of the perianth (seen fully closed in the bud image at top) splits, as the flower matures, and the perianth segments (tepals) roll back, down along the stem. This is referred to as being "revolute".

"Perianth tubular; tepals revolute at anthesis." (PlantNET)

After maturing, the tepals drop off the flower, leaving only the style (which had the stigma at its tip, and leads down to the Ovary at the base). In this case, you can see the ovaries of these flowers are starting to develop. They are the orange-cloured swellings at the base of each style.Here is an unripened fruit (still green, not blue). But you can see the "persistent style" protruding below the fruit (on the right). The fruit is, of course, developing where the "ovary" (the orange swelling - above) is located in the original flower.This fruit, with the style protruding, looks very similar to a Persoonia fruit.

Protea flower parts - in detail.

Several weeks ago, I showed some lovely flowers of a popular hybrid Protea "Pink Ice". Here is the primary parent plant of that hybrid.

According to the Planzafrica.com website, Protea neriifolia was the first protea ever to be mentioned in botanical literature. It is a South African plant (of course). It was first discovered in 1597, and was apparently was first illustrated in 1605. It was described and named in 1810. The name refers to the similarity of the leaves to that of the European plant - the Oleander (Nerium sp)Today it is my intention to examine the details of these spectacular flowers. Of course, in Australia, we have many plants (Waratahs and Banksias and Grevilleas to name the most familiar) which the botanists recognised easily as related to the Proteas - hence they are referred to as members of the Proteaceae family. However, to the untrained eye, the differences are more apparent than the similarities. I wish to concentrate tonight on the similarity of flower structure (with some of our flowers).

When I started this investigation, the first thing I felt was "odd" was the tuft of little "feathered tips" in the centre of the Protea flower. Then I decided to pull out several of these flowers to examine them in detail. Two things happened. The flowers broke off half-way down, with a long thin tube still protruding down to the base of the "flower" (the entire head, I mean). Clearly that would have been the tube through which the pollen grains grow down to the ovary at the base of the flower. The second thing was that my fingers were suddenly covered with pollen, which surprised me, for I had been looking to see where the pollen grains originated, but had not seen them. At least I knew they were there somewhere. Time to look more closely.
Firstly you need to understand that what we see as a flower in in fact a composite flower structure - which is composed of many flowers grouped together inside a set of surrounding bracts. It is the bracts which we see as the main part of the flower - but in botanical terms, the bracts are mere "window dressing". They simply serve to protect the true flowers as they develop.

A Protea flower - an individual "true" flower I mean - does not have separate sepals and petals. Instead, there is one set of four perianth segments (called tepals). Initially these parts are fused. As the flower matures, it ruptures open.

Following up from my first experiment to pluck out a flower (which did not work), I realised I had to break open an entire flower head (removing some of the external bracts), to approach the many flowers from the side. That worked, and in the next image, you can see the "feathered tips" of the tepals, close up.

You can also see the lipstick pink tips of what are similar to our Australian proteaceae flowers - the "pollen presenters". Technically, this is the tip of the style. It is the female organ of the flower, but it acts as the male part of the flower temporarily. That will be familiar to readers of this blog - for it is the secret to their pollination.
This is one of the things which the Proteas have in common with our own Proteaceae flowers, although our plants tend to have a curved flower, and a style "pops out" to the side, under pressure.
This Protea style does not to have that curved shape - just a slight bend near the tip, visible here, just below the red coloured section.
The four tepals are fused into a long narrow tube with a closed cup at the top. (That is the bit which has that feathered external appearance). Inside the perianth, the four stamens are fused to the tepals, in such a way that the anthers are enclosed within the cup. The pistil initially passes along the inside of the perianth tube, so that the stigma too is enclosed within the cup. As the flower develops, the pistil grows rapidly. Since the stigma is trapped, the style must bend in order to elongate, and eventually it bends so far that it splits the perianth along one seam. The style continues to grow until anthesis, when the nectaries begin to produce nectar. Just before anthesis, the anthers release their pollen, depositing it onto the stigma. At this time, the perianth splits apart, and the pistil is released to spring more or less upright. Then the tip of the pistil (the "stigma") functions (for several days usually) as the "pollen presenter". Hopefully a suitable pollinator will visit the flower to get the nectar, and will be dusted with pollen. Once the pollen dries, it falls off the tip of the stigma, which then assumes its true female (receptive) function.

You can see the pollen on the Stigma in this image.
(Click to enlarge)

The male organs (anthers) of Proteas are also distinctive. The anthers do not have long stalks (filaments), but are joined directly to near the top of the tepals. Unlike most other plants, the anthers shed their pollen onto the topmost portion of the style just before the flowers open. Because the style presents the pollen in a position suitable for placing onto any visitor, the top-most portion of the style is called the pollen-presenter. The presence of a pollen-presenter is another diagnostic feature for Proteas. It allows the pollen to be "dusted" onto the natural pollinating vector, be it an insect, a bird or a South African mouse (or Honey Possum for Australian members of the Proteaceae).
Note the split in the perianth. That is where the pollen came from. In this regard it is functionally similar to the Waratah and Grevillea flowers. Click to enlarge the image above to see what I mean.

Four nectaries are apparently situated at the base of the ovary, between the ovary and the tepal bases. These secrete nectar to attract pollinators. Source: Protea Atlas Project

One thing which I have not managed to understand yet is why our Proteaceae flowers split into 4 separate perianth segments, but this Protea seems to keep its anthers closed within a single tube - even after the style has split out. From this reference document, it is obvious that many South African Proteaceae do behave in ways more similar to our Waratahs and Grevilleas (than this Protea does).
.