Photo/s of the day.
Aug. 29th, 2010 09:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
moonvoiceI missed Koondoola.
Daviesia divaricata
Our main entrance into Koondoola bushland. How I missed it here, it was an incredible homecoming, and made me realise in a bittersweet way, both how bereft I am in the land I am now; and also, how humbled I am to have ever been allowed to come so close to this land, to know some of its secrets.
Even if some of those secrets include arson. Such a shame, this endangered kwongan bushland (literally, endangered. Everything you are looking at there, in the combination that it is in, Endangered), is in a low socio-economic area. It is struck with serious arson every few years, and spot fires every year. Thank goodness the bushland can handle it.
Calectasia grandiflora. When they first bloom, the stamens are yellow. And then as the stamens age, they blush to a vivid red. Unlike many Western Australian endemic wildflowers, this one has a common name, and is called - prettily - the Blue Tinsel Lily.
Aging flowers.
More. I actually think they are prettiest when aging. Eventually, however, the stamens will fall off, and the petals bleach to white, revealing a skeleton where the flower once was.
Calectasia and an unidentified Synaphea. There are over 50 to choose from, and they all look exactly the same. Just about.
A nest of Phryganoporus spiders. These are very common in Koondoola (and neighbouring suburbs, where they reach pest proportions). Yes. I said nest. These can house up to 650 juvenile spiders (though 20 - 100 is more common), which disperse when sexually mature (although when they disperse varies, and some adults won't leave), communally living together and working together to expand a nest and secure prey. This is a mid to small sized nest. They are also known as 'foliage webbing spiders.' When all adults have dispersed, the nest is often left abandoned, and are generally not reused by other spiders.
What you can see in the centre, is the 'nest', which will have numerous entrance holes. If you were to cut this open (or in my brother's case, flood one at the age of five), about every arachnophobe's worst nightmare of say...many spiders will come spilling out hurriedly. There's probably only about fifty in this one. Each the size of a small fingernail.
The Australian museum says:
"Juveniles will cluster together and undertake collective tasks such as nest construction and cleaning, capture of food, and feeding. However, the juveniles may behave cooperatively because they are giving out hormonal chemicals (or pheromones) at this time which promote toleration."
Milkweed.
Hybanthus calycinus - wild violet.
North path, West.
Wild wisteria, or Hardenbergia comptoniana.
One of the many subspecies of Daviesia incrassata. One of my favourite bushland flowers.
The final stretch home.
The thing we found on Glen's car. :)
Daviesia divaricata
Our main entrance into Koondoola bushland. How I missed it here, it was an incredible homecoming, and made me realise in a bittersweet way, both how bereft I am in the land I am now; and also, how humbled I am to have ever been allowed to come so close to this land, to know some of its secrets.
Even if some of those secrets include arson. Such a shame, this endangered kwongan bushland (literally, endangered. Everything you are looking at there, in the combination that it is in, Endangered), is in a low socio-economic area. It is struck with serious arson every few years, and spot fires every year. Thank goodness the bushland can handle it.
Calectasia grandiflora. When they first bloom, the stamens are yellow. And then as the stamens age, they blush to a vivid red. Unlike many Western Australian endemic wildflowers, this one has a common name, and is called - prettily - the Blue Tinsel Lily.
Aging flowers.
More. I actually think they are prettiest when aging. Eventually, however, the stamens will fall off, and the petals bleach to white, revealing a skeleton where the flower once was.
Calectasia and an unidentified Synaphea. There are over 50 to choose from, and they all look exactly the same. Just about.
A nest of Phryganoporus spiders. These are very common in Koondoola (and neighbouring suburbs, where they reach pest proportions). Yes. I said nest. These can house up to 650 juvenile spiders (though 20 - 100 is more common), which disperse when sexually mature (although when they disperse varies, and some adults won't leave), communally living together and working together to expand a nest and secure prey. This is a mid to small sized nest. They are also known as 'foliage webbing spiders.' When all adults have dispersed, the nest is often left abandoned, and are generally not reused by other spiders.
What you can see in the centre, is the 'nest', which will have numerous entrance holes. If you were to cut this open (or in my brother's case, flood one at the age of five), about every arachnophobe's worst nightmare of say...many spiders will come spilling out hurriedly. There's probably only about fifty in this one. Each the size of a small fingernail.
The Australian museum says:
"Juveniles will cluster together and undertake collective tasks such as nest construction and cleaning, capture of food, and feeding. However, the juveniles may behave cooperatively because they are giving out hormonal chemicals (or pheromones) at this time which promote toleration."
Milkweed.
Hybanthus calycinus - wild violet.
North path, West.
Wild wisteria, or Hardenbergia comptoniana.
One of the many subspecies of Daviesia incrassata. One of my favourite bushland flowers.
The final stretch home.
The thing we found on Glen's car. :)
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:36 am (UTC)How ironic.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:38 am (UTC)Heh, very ironic.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 01:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:05 am (UTC)Although... *hugs kwongan* there aint nothing else like that kwongan bushland in the whole of the rest of Australia (let alone the rest of the world), hence why it's Endangered.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:06 am (UTC)'so you've gotta come visit me in Perth!'
I'm gonna come to the USA one day too, I've decided. Heh.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:39 am (UTC)The spider web is gorgeous, too. Though the idea of a metric assload of spiders living together in one web makes this arachnophobe go "D: DO NOT WANT." XD
no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 07:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 05:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 05:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 09:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-29 09:45 pm (UTC)