Botany Nerds Ahoy

Thanks AW

Gosh , like so many things I take a closer look at , Plants are so Cool .

The Arnie Raffa sounds like a great thing 2 Stand in , IF it is NOT of those really STINKY ones ( why smell like rotting flesh ffs ( maybe a gift 4 someone U don't like ? ) .

Quite amazing 2 think that a group of Plants decided 130 millions years ago , 2 get Bees to help with the Sex Stuff .

Maybe Bees came 130 million Years ago and joined in the Plant Sex Conference and suggested Flowers ( smart bees and I think there are SO Cool 2 !!! ) .

What came first AW , The Bee or the Flower ( Chicken or egg type question ? ) ?

Not many animals last 130 million years , so its Flowers , perhaps :) lol

It doesn't matter much , as is Mother Nature and good .

PopDown. Hope you’re well. There’s swell and tomorrow morning is looking good, I’ll bring you the honey.

Answering your question, bees arrived a little bit later than Angiosperms (flowering plants, 130-135 mya) the little critters have recently been found in the fossil record to date back as far as 120mya.

Bees evolved from an earlier radiation of wasps, in particular, predatory wasps.

Bees flourished as the radiation of angiosperms with their vast array of flower morphologies gave the little buggers exactly what they wanted. Spoilt for choice one might say.

Tidbit, talk about size anomalies, bees were around when dinosaurs roamed earth.

What a fascinating world we live in. AW

The World gets more fascinating , the closer I check it out and U are helping so much AW .

Have fun surfing :) .

Plants are smart and must have had a chat with some Bug's or Birds about helping them Cover the Land , with their little Sexy bits , then , surely :)

I am like a T rex and Never , f around with a Bee .

Those little guys have a REAL "Sting in their Tail" and don't like being Stepped On by Anything .

Super Tuff , 120m years of resilience and very cool .

Those numbers kick Human butt !

seeds wrote:

Amazing color in those flowers. Look like agapanthus flowers a bit but not the foliage or lack thereof. Looks like they might spring to life after decent rain.

Seeds. Hi mate. How’s things ?

All your descriptions are pretty spot on.

It’s Calostemma purpureum, it’s native to NSW, SA, NW VIC, QLD. Garland Lily, Wilcannia Lily.

A member of the Amaryllidaceae family, one of many lily families.

Beautiful flowers for sure. Arid area plant, long strappy leaves in Spring, herbaceous ( meaning it dies back to a basal rootstock when it gets hot).

It’s found in areas with some Summer rain (what you see in the photo) and they ephemerally pop up.

This photo was sent to me yesterday for identification from a bird colleague who is in the Port Pirie area near Mt.Remarkable National Park in SA.

It also occurs as a yellow flowering plant labelled Calostemma luteum.
but it’s still C.purpureum. This happens in the plant/animal world, C.luteum has not to date been DNA separated as a new species.

BTW. I posted to you last Friday, apologies for the delay, I’ve filled the parcel up with a few more goodies.

How’s ya board going ? AW

@AW , I went for a beach walk this afternoon and came across this vegetation growing on top of these two large rocks . It always amazes me where somethings grow . Although there’s only about 2ft of dirt mixed with rocks and mulch at the thickest point these palms have been able to grow . Had me also wondering how two large rocks came to be on the beach with ocean one side and thick jungle the other .

Some more shots

Supafreak wrote:

@AW , I went for a beach walk this afternoon and came across this vegetation growing on top of these two large rocks . It always amazes me where somethings grow . Although there’s only about 2ft of dirt mixed with rocks and mulch at the thickest point these palms have been able to grow . Had me also wondering how two large rocks came to be on the beach with ocean one side and thick jungle the other .

Supafreak. Hi mate. Hope you and your family are well.

I’m aware you are on a trip, great stuff. You deserve it.

Well, palms being monocotyledonous plants, growing from a thick broad basal rootstock, essentially a zone of regeneration.
Notice the diameter and surface area of each individual root, they are very broad , this enables the plant to acquire the very basic nutrients for growth from whatever substrate is present, albeit in that transition zone.
There would be just enough carbon coming from the meek amount of organic matter present as mulch to support the plant.

Geomorphologically, the land form, the two large rocks are either the tips of strata connected to a sub surface formation, or remnants isolated by erosion that happened to be harder than its surroundings that was removed by wave action.
Possibly, rising sea level, very apparent in equatorial zones where we surf, I know every time I’m in Indo, there’s more trees and land being surrendered to the sea.

If you don’t mind me asking, roughly where are you ?

I’m only asking because the geology of the entire Barusan Island chain, say, Simeulue all the way down south to Enggano and including the Mentawai Archipelago islands has differing geology.
Some islands are submarine connected to mainland Indonesia, many evolved in isolation and are actually true islands, many basaltic in origin emanating from sea floor volcanic vent action.
Knowing roughly where you are would help me to understand the type of rock present.

Truly hope you’re having fun. AW.

seeds wrote:

Alfred I hate to say but your package hasn’t arrived. Possibly you may have got the parcel locker number wrong (I checked today that I gave it correctly) or I don’t know. Never used these parcel lockers before which you can set up with the Aust Post app.

Seeds. Hi mate. I double checked the number. The post office worker did scare me a little when she said that if the name of the owner of the locker doesn’t match the number, it possibly doesn’t get delivered.
I only had your moniker Seeds as the ‘person’ to send it to.
She went on to say that I’d receive a notification if it’s not delivered.

I’ve still got the receipt number and tracking, I’ll make some inquiries tomorrow.
Sorry about this.
I hope it gets to you , there’s some goodies in there , old and new.AW

@AW , thanks for explanation , I found it fascinating that the root system could support such a large palm. I’m in the mentawai region. Came across this boat under construction, so much work involved to carve this out of what must have been one hell of a tree .

Supafreak. Good stuff.

What a great set up you guys have got. I assumed you were in the Ments, wave, vegetation and landform kind of tells us that.

That boat, wow, you’re right, that came from some mother fucker of a tree.
Imagine the work involved with their tools to carve it out, I must say, very impressive.

The ground cover vegetation in the foreground of the boat is the classic world wide highly distributed Beach Morning Glory ( Ipomoea pes- caprae ). Its seeds are waterproof and are translocated by water currents and wind.

The plant is often associated with a dunal grass.

Similarly, the Coconut Palms have an aquatic dispersal system also as part of their developmental seed biology. In the water you often see the green coconut bobbing away aimlessly.

Tear it up big fella. AW

The wildlife knows that Anzac Day is the true start to Autumnal transition to cooler weather. A few migratory species returning seemingly on the date. The Spangled drongos and the Currawongs who head above the Dividing Range for summer are back for a handout feed each afternoon

Has a barn owl moved into the backyard today too. The other birds are not stoked. Everyone from Rsinbow Lorikeets, noisy miners, blue faced honey eaters , magpies and butcherbirds giving it grief.

Maybe a bit of blood on its starboard wing? It didn’t seem too stressed though as it emerged from its hollow to blink at the early arvo light though. Maybe it’s someone else’s blood!

Nice one. Good local to have hanging out.

Slackjawedyokel wrote:

The wildlife knows that Anzac Day is the true start to Autumnal transition to cooler weather. A few migratory species returning seemingly on the date. The Spangled drongos and the Currawongs who head above the Dividing Range for summer are back for a handout feed each afternoon

Has a barn owl moved into the backyard today too. The other birds are not stoked. Everyone from Rsinbow Lorikeets, noisy miners, blue faced honey eaters , magpies and butcherbirds giving it grief.

Maybe a bit of blood on its starboard wing? It didn’t seem too stressed though as it emerged from its hollow to blink at the early arvo light though. Maybe it’s someone else’s blood!

SJY. Nice Owl photo (male). Injured or blood from prey?

You’re obviously in NSW or Old. AW

Not an owl but impressive green fella all the same.

blackers wrote:

Not an owl but impressive green fella all the same.

Blackers. Not an owl but another impressive photo from you. I love it.

It’s a katydid. Beautiful mate.AW

Katy did tell me Alfred, but thanks for confirming it. :)

blackers wrote:

Katy did tell me Alfred, but thanks for confirming it. :)

Boom, boom.

Here’s looking back at you.

At home, March 2018, iPhone 8. AW

Ooh nice. May have found myself a new avatar. Not sure how you worked out what I look like tho.....

The wildlife knows that Anzac Day is the true start to Autumnal transition to cooler weather. A few migratory species returning seemingly on the date. The Spangled drongos and the Currawongs who head above the Dividing Range for summer are back for a handout feed each afternoon

Has a barn owl moved into the backyard today too. The other birds are not stoked. Everyone from Rsinbow Lorikeets, noisy miners, blue faced honey eaters , magpies and butcherbirds giving it grief.

Maybe a bit of blood on its starboard wing? It didn’t seem too stressed though as it emerged from its hollow to blink at the early arvo light though. Maybe it’s someone else’s blood! “

- SJY the Drongo’s are interesting with their migration as some actually head south in winter, presumably following the flowering coastal heath and eucalyptus. In summer they breed north from about Port Macquarie.

AW, had partial success with ID of the Red Weed. Sent an image to the Herbarium and they suspect Callophyllis sp. or maybe Ceratodictyon sp but not enough detail in image to confirm.
They suggest sending a specimen so that will have to wait until Spring… but it doesn’t always show up in La Niña years.

Supafreak wrote:

@AW , thanks for explanation , I found it fascinating that the root system could support such a large palm. I’m in the mentawai region. Came across this boat under construction, so much work involved to carve this out of what must have been one hell of a tree .

Looks like your having a good time.

Those coconut palms are only young but you should see some they get crazy tall, but they eventually do die or quite literally snap in half in a storm often from termite's, one night one went not far from where i was staying and the snapping sound was crazy like a lighting strike.

They only fall over from the base if severally undermined by the ocean there strength is just in having a huge dense root ball, and then they can take a lot of wind as they just sway and flex in the breeze.

When clearing the land for the surf house the locals went crazy over the palm heart, the inner core of the growing point, you eat it raw and it is real crispy and delicate kinda taste like a nice tasting type of raw cabbage or something i guess.

Distracted][quote=Slackjawedyokel wrote:

The wildlife knows that Anzac Day is the true start to Autumnal transition to cooler weather. A few migratory species returning seemingly on the date. The Spangled drongos and the Currawongs who head above the Dividing Range for summer are back for a handout feed each afternoon

Has a barn owl moved into the backyard today too. The other birds are not stoked. Everyone from Rsinbow Lorikeets, noisy miners, blue faced honey eaters , magpies and butcherbirds giving it grief.

Maybe a bit of blood on its starboard wing? It didn’t seem too stressed though as it emerged from its hollow to blink at the early arvo light though. Maybe it’s someone else’s blood! “

- SJY the Drongo’s are interesting with their migration as some actually head south in winter, presumably following the flowering coastal heath and eucalyptus. In summer they breed north from about Port Macquarie.

Distracted. Hi, hope ya well.

That’s good news a partial ID on the Red Algae. I’ve still got it out there hoping someone will provide us with a definitive answer.

Spangled Drongos, beautiful bird.
I’m use to seeing them on the Atherton Tablelands in FNQ, love how they just sit on a branch in pouring rain like they enjoy it.

So true regarding heading south , well in my case very south, Victoria.
Two Winters ago at Blue Lake in Ocean Grove ( not far from 13th and Torquay beaches) we had a Spangled Drongo visitor, quite a rare sighting. Aroused much attention, bird observers came from afar.

Luckily for myself and two others we were monitoring Orange Bellied Parrots in Lake Connewarre only a few kms away so we were able to make the positive sighting. AW

Distracted. Hi.

The two aforementioned possibilities for an ID of the red algae are in that book I’ve previously mentioned.
As you’d appreciate you really need the specimen in your hand.
Photographs can look magnified or miniscule proportionally to what they are actually like as life size specimens
We or someone will hopefully get an ID in the future.

All the best .AW