NetDynam 2.0

i just returned from a long drive to geelong to attend the association of societies for growing australian plants (ASGAP) biennial conference there. the drive itself takes about 10 hours or so straight, so i did it in 2 days, leaving about 11am each day and arriving for the evening about 4. the conference was held over 5 days, monday to friday, with 3 days of talks and presentations and 2 days of excursions to local reserves and gardens. on the way back i stopped in at seymour to visit my old school friend, and then we took a 2 day loll about to beechworth and rutherglen. victoria – the place to be!

anyway, of course i took some pics. the themes of plants and railways were prominent… in this post, a selection of plant-oriented fotos…

part of the royal botanic gardens west of melbourne in cranbourne is almost remnant bushland with areas of heath and marshland. there is also a remnant piece of high ground on the relentless flat, and from here you can get a good view 360 degrees. in the photo above, there is the track leading west into the woodland…

here’s what it looks like from the track through the bushland – established box trees, bracken, melaleuca, acacia… and lots of bird and frog noises…

meanwhile, in one corner of the reserve, there is “the australian garden“, designed by renowned landscape architect firm, taylor cullity lethlean. it incorporates the idea of a landscape narrative based on the different geo-climactic regions and conditions that australian plants have evolved with… one of my favourite plants they’ve featured in one part of the garden is the slow-growing, prehistoric xanthorrhea, known variously as ‘blackboy’, ‘grass tree’ or ‘kangaroo tail’

in another part of the garden  a great fat happily growing telopea speciosissima… they are universally acknowledged as a bugger to grow successfully…



next stop – as far as this photo trail goes – is anglesea heath, on the hill behind the little surfing town that is the start of the great ocean road. here everyone starts getting down on their knees – but only because they want to take photos of the small native orchids that are endemic to these remnant heathland sites…

this open woodland heath looks dull – until you get right up close….

plenty of these caladenia subspecies, the same as the one in the photo above, a type of spider orchid – but which particular one i did not catch.

however, the other two types about the place were not so difficult to tell apart…

this one is known as a ‘donkey orchid’ for obvious reasons i guess. to be precise, it is a form of diuris… did you know there were so many sub-species in the genera orchidacea? OK – one more caladenia and i’m off to the cafe to do _linguistics_ mmmm. well, i guess taxonomy by any other name would smell as sweet…

well, i wasnt going to try taking a picture of this one – the little canon IXUS i carry about on walking excursions has only AF as far as i know, and this day was very windy, so this mantis orchid (caladenia arachnorchis tentaculata) was blowing about all the time. then a friendly dog came and licked my camera hand as i was trying to get the focus and me held still. i told the dog to psst, and he walked right on top of the orchid. luckiy it sprung up again. i turned camera off and on, and suddenly it managed to focus on the orchid itself instead of the background…. well, i should really use the DSLR, but then, this pic is better than nothing ….maybe…