Western Australia Wildflowers

We have just returned from a fabulous trip to Western Australia! Its been about 17 years since I was last in that floriferous state and this time we decided to go north of Perth (last time we went south) and follow the Everlastings Trail. This self drive trail took us up through New Norcia and Mingenew to Mullewa and then across to the coast and south back to Perth. We saw carpets of everlastings (Helichrysum sp, rhodanthe sp) as promised by colourful tourist brochures and some really unusual plants like quandongs Santalum lanceolatum covered in fruit and woody pears Xylomelum occidentale and the WA Christmas Tree Nuytsia floribunda.

I was particularly keen to find the wreath lechenaultia Lechenaultia macrantha which only grows in areas of recent disturbance (fires, earthworks) so you have to ask at the town Information Centres for their location. The volunteers are only too happy to help and we were able to find several plants in a few locations. Nothing like driving 75km out of your way to photograph a flower! It was very exciting coming across these amazing plants which can apparently grow to almost a metre in diameter. The leaves are succulent and they grow in almost pure sand. What a perfect adapation to their arid environment.

On the way home we stopped at Adelaide Airport and I read in the local paper that at Roxby Downs the hillsides are carpeted with Sturt's desert pea Swainsona formosa thanks to the recent rains. Upon reaching home I immediately set about working out how I could get there to take some photos before the flowers succumbed to the rising heat. Unfortunately it was all too hard and too expensive and will have to wait for another day!

PS After another generous fall of rain last night we are now up to 180mm of rain for Aug and Sept and 70mm already for Oct. The dam is overflowing again and everything is starting to go gangbusters!

Sturt Desert Pea

I was reminded of the Sturt desert pea this morning whilst doing the washing up. I have tiles around my kitchen imprinted with the image of this flower so it's a bit hard to ignore! If I said the other day that my very favourite flower was the flannel flower Actinotus helianthii then the desert pea comes a close second. I remember the first time I saw it in the wild. I was working as a cook for an outback tour company and we stopped one evening at Marla in northern South Australia. There in the bottom of a hole that had been excavated for a swimming pool was a mature plant of the desert pea in full spectacular bloom. Too far away to take any decent photos all we could do was stand and stare. It was many years before I finally got close enough to one to take some great photos (on film!). One of these I had blown up and it also resides in my kitchen. I have come across this amazing flower many more times since then, but it never fails to entrance me and I have tried to grow it here (with mixed success) a couple of times.

The desert pea used to be known as Clianthus formosus then the name Wildampia was proposed to honour William Dampier who collected the first specimen but in the end it was changed to Swainsona formosa. The specimens I have grown were all grafted onto the New Zealand native Clianthus puniceus (which is a fabulous plant in its own right) but I believe it can also be grafted onto Colutea arborescens. Purchasing the plant in spring is the best idea and I have grown one plant in the open for almost 12 months. It eventually succumbed not to frost, cold or wet feet but slugs and snails! It is a member of the pea family and snails and slugs love it. My plant was in potting mix in a terracotta cylinder so it had perfect drainage. It grew quite large and had heaps of flowers over many months. I was once asked to obtain some seeds of the desert pea for Whoopi Goldberg when she was touring many years ago. Who would have thought that such a famous person would know about our desert pea, let alone be interested in growing such a humble little Australian plant?! She asked some sensible questions about how to get the seed to germinate and how best to grow it on. Sadly I never found out whether she was successful or not.