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A while ago, actually more than a decade ago already!, my husband and I went on a month-long birding tout of eastern and northern Australia led by members of the Audubon Society of Corvallis, Oregon. While the group was scanning various parts of the scenery for avifauna, I was fascinated by the exotic plants endemic to Australia. Like kangaroos, koalas, echidnas and other unique fauna, Australian flora evolved in isolation after techtonic forces broke it off from supercontinent Gondwana about 135 million years ago, and Australia began its majestic drift to its present location bounded by the Indian, Pacific, and Southern Oceans. October was Southern Hemisphere’s spring, so many plants were in bloom.
The various regions in Australia explored during the birding tour, graphic from our tour leader.
One of the iconic flowering shrubs of New South Wales is the wild waratah, Telopea speciosissima, an Australian endemic.
Red wild waratah flowers on display at the Mt Tomah Botanic Garden, in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney
One surprise was stumbling upon the world’s tallest lily, the Gymea lily, Doryanthes excelsa, in bloom along a road in the coastal Royal National Park of New South Wales. Who knew?
Gymea lily with me (5 ft 4 in) in comparison, the red lily flowers at top of photo are helpfully labeled.
Another surprise to me were lush rainforests. In New South Wales there were temperate rainforests with lots of ferns, strangler figs, vines and palms. In Queensland there were tropical rainforests with lots of ferns, strangler figs, vines and palms, plus a venomous tree.
A walkway in the New South Wales Minnamurra temperate rainforest, with palms.
Large strangler fig growing on a huge tree in the Minnamurra rainforest, with me for scale. Tall tree ferns are on either side of the tree.
Of course there were eucalyptus forests — lots and lots of eucalyptus, aka gum, trees, many in flower with honeyeater birds feasting on the nectar.
Path in a eucalyptus forest in Wheeny Creek National Park in New South Wales, north of Sydney.
There were both white and black barked eucalyptus trees.
Black and Scribbly Gum eucalyptus trees in Wheeny Creek Park.
After touring around New South Wales, we flew to the hot, very hot!, and dry Northern Territory, with a much different landscape which included strange boab trees, in the same genus as African baobab trees, which look like them with huge inflated trunks that store water taken up during occasional rains. The flowers are pollinated by bats. Recent DNA analysis has shown that baobab trees evolved in Madagascar about 21 million years ago, and their seeds were probably carried by ocean currents west to the African mainland and east to Australia www.bbc.com/....
Stop on a dusty road on the way to Marigu Billabong in the Northern Territory, with a medium sized boab tree on the left.
A humongous boab tree, said to be over 2000 years old, at the Wyndham Caravan Park in the Northern Territory.
There were also some weird looking Pandamus trees on a track in the Kakadu National Park.
Pandamus trees in the Kakadu National Park, Northern Territory
And lots of termite mounds — some really huge.
A huge termite mound near Kakadu National Park in the Northern Territory
Then it was on to the tropical rainforests of Queensland.
A giant rainforest vine on walkway at Barron Falls in Queensland.
The Queensland rainforest features a truly enormous, 500 year old strangler fig, the Curtain Fig Tree, a major tourist attraction: en.wikipedia.org/...
The Curtain Fig Tree in the Curtain Fig National Park in northern Queensland.
How the Curtain Fig Tree formed over time, by the fig roots growing down the tree.
Australia is well known for its venomous creatures — spiders, snakes, and box jellyfish. But of course Australia also has a venomous plant. The stinging tree, or Gympie Gympie, Dendrocnide moroides. This nasty plant, related to nettles, has leaves covered with toxin-laden spines that cause excruciating pain if touched.
A sapling stinging tree in a Queensland rainforest looks innocuous, but don’t touch!
We did see kangaroos — here is a mob of grey kangaroos in Girraween National Park in the higher and drier Queensland tablelands, eucalyptus forest in the background..
Grey kangaroos browsing in Girraween National Park in southern Queensland
Aussie humor in a town park in Queensland.
A final stop was a tourist mecca: O’Reilly’s Guest House at Lamington National Park in southern Queensland, which featured both tropical rainforest and dryer landscapes.
Walk in a eucalyptus forest with endemic grasstrees, which are in the same plant order as asparagus, near O’Reilly’s Guest House.
And finally, after an exciting and exhausting month, sunset on our last day before flying home.
Sunset with eucalyptus tree in Queensland on our last day.
What is going on in your floral world? Photos appreciated!
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