Photo/s of the day. Bushwalking behind our house.

[moonvoice]

They've started knocking down the bushland behind our house;
in preparation for building on it.
Over the past three years I've been documenting the beautiful fauna and flora that live there,
both in illustration, and in photography.
This morning I went out again.
One day, this will all be gone. One day very, very soon.


Acacia - Unidentified, because there are so many species of acacia and even my books because I have like 10 books on SW WA flower identification of 400 plants of the South-West of Australia doesn't have it. Can't be assed trawling through Florabase today. Flower buds and a blossom.






Bushland - Our bushland is often unremarkable from a distance, or even from within it, if you don't know what to look for. It's khaki, dense, cluttered. It unashamedly holds some of the world's most venomous snakes in its grasp.





Bushland - You can see little annual shrubs of hibbertia. Hibbertia isn't usually an annual, but because the genus is so damned diverse; some of them decided to be annuals. Yes, the native colour of our soil is white/grey/cream. It's fossilised sand-dunes - don't'cha know? Western Australia has the world's oldest, most untouched geography. Which - of course - means that a great deal of it is impoverished of nutrients, and, like anywhere that is completely impoverished of soil nutrients, incredible diversity sprang forth in the flora and the fauna to adapt to this. Making the South-West of Western Australia, where I live, a biological hotspot. "In the southwest region are some of the largest numbers of plant species for its area in the world."





Acacia flowerbuds.





Menzies banksia - Out of flower.





Common Forest Heath - It's not an especially 'floral' time of year. It's mostly yellow and white colours predominating right now, but as it's not Spring, it's mostly just early Acacia and Hibbertia; but the common forest heath is showing up too, because she is a showy flower.





Hibbertia









Another species of Hibbertia - A most cheerful flower.





Dead banksia bark





Doesn't mean life can't grow on it.





Astroloma xerophyllum - Here is a perfect example of a WA plant that does not have, and will likely never have a common name. The majority of Western Australian plants don't have common names. There are too many, and we haven't been settled for long enough, and frankly; most people don't care enough about it.





But how could you not care about this joyous, profusely flowering shrub?








That's all for now; hopefully the bushland is still standing in Spring.

Comments

[feralkiss]

"Our bushland is often unremarkable from a distance, or even from within it, if you don't know what to look for. "

I think that can be said of a lot of bushlands ^^ it's the same in my homeland. I really like your land from what we can see in your journal.

[moonvoice]

I really like your land from what we can see in your journal.

I know what to look for. *grin*

[white_rabbit]

So beautiful. :) I keep meaning to go on a hike and bring my camera to show you the bush we have around here. So very different!

[moonvoice]

YES! I would love that SO much.

[goth_kittie]

I just worked out from this post why your photography is so incredibly special to me. With my visual disability (trees are browm and green blurry things.. I know trees have leaves because that is what I am taught, not what I see), I can actually SEE details I never in my life get to witness. Things are so much more amazingly intricate than I expect.. :) Thank you for sharing. :)

[moonvoice]

Oh, thank you for letting me know this. *offers hugs* It's awesome that I can bring some of those details into your life; I only wish there was more bushland around to explore here.

[ariestess]

How pretty!

[moonvoice]

And prickly! Heh.

[ariestess]

LOL! I bet!

[spectrum_x]

OMG. These pictures are so beautiful, it makes Samyaza and I happy to look at them. He's proud of his plants, thank you for posting them.

[moonvoice]

I'd be careful of assuming that a several thousand year old demon created plants that Indigenous Aboriginal cultures have had creator spirits for (not least the plants themselves; and the autonomy of the plants spirits creating themselves in many cases), for over 30,000 years - and possibly more than 45,000 years. The oldest continuing culture in the world gets oppressed enough, without people projecting their own religious systems onto the manifestations of their culture.

[spectrum_x]

Makes sense, my apologies.

[silverjackal]

I always love your photos, and these really are a feast for the eyes in their detail. The Astroloma xerophyllum look like their flowers are made from hoar frost, and the first Hibbertia as though it has been made from insects. :)

[moonvoice]

The Astroloma is beautiful, and there are many other variants which are equally beautiful. They always flower very very profusely, but have the downside of being quite prickly! I suppose that's an upside if you want to use it as a burglar-deterrent hedge though.

[lupagreenwolf]

Gods, that reminds me of the time in my teens when the beloved woods behind my home was unexpectedly bulldozed to the ground to make way for suburbs. My favorite part never had a house put on it because it was on a floodplain, and is only now, over 15 years later, showing any real signs of its former glory.

[moonvoice]

Gods, that reminds me of the time in my teens when the beloved woods behind my home was unexpectedly bulldozed to the ground to make way for suburbs.

Thankfully, here, they haven't bulldozed down what they don't intend to build on; so there are some very dedicated sections, or chains of bushland kept throughout and you can still often see kangaroos (and emus, and foxes, and cats) within them. They also don't put paths through the bushland, to keep it as pristine as possible.

But the bushland behind our house is going. :/ It's already pretty degraded though. A lot of weeds and it's evident that heavy machinery has been driving through for maybe about 5-10 years.

It's amazing how many natives from the bushland behind us have blown seeds into our back yard, which have then grown into robust plants.

[spider_fox]

A "biological hotspot" eh? Sounds like you got your work cut out for you :P

I don't see khaki though, even in the distance shots there's a lot of color and beauty there. Khaki, to me, is the color of work pants and new suburban houses. There's none of that in this post.

Your beautiful flower pics keep inspiring me to pay more attention to the flora here.

[moonvoice]

A "biological hotspot" eh? Sounds like you got your work cut out for you :P

Was harder when I was walking through endangered kwongan almost every day! That stuff is intensely biodiverse, and if I took 20 pictures of plants, chances were that my books had none of them in there, and I had to wile away hours on Florabase looking there instead.

I see khaki; but then I think khaki is just another wonderful shade of green (grey-green), like any other.

[spider_fox]

Ah, that explains it then. The term "khaki" means beige to me. I certainly see greens in your picture, but not beige.

[paleo]

Your photos and descriptions have absolutely convinced me that western Australia would be a wonderous place to visit.

[moonvoice]

Yes! I think it would be wondrous place to visit. And even to live! Very clean air, very blue skies, and lots of cool people and cold beer. ;)

[shistavanenjedi]

The unidentified acacia just highlights what will be lost as it could be a rare or unknown species. It might be a good idea to contact an expert so they can have a look at it. If it is rare or unknown, it could save the bushland.

[moonvoice]

It's not rare/unknown, just not in my book. It's likely in the online Florabase directory; but no books so far have a comprehensive account of the 9000+ identified plants in Western Australia. There's just too many for books!

But I didn't want to spend an hour trawling through Florabase either, it's probably a relative of the Harrow Wattle.

Unnamed and Unnameable

[perzephone]

Here is a perfect example of a WA plant that does not have, and will likely never have a common name.

Start making them up & see if they stick XD

For instance, that Astroloma looks like a Lacy Snowstar to me. Or maybe Snowy Lacebloom. If you want to mention the leaves, it's a Variegated Snowy Lacebloom.

[alleia]

wow your photos are beautiful!