Wongan Hills weekend

The Nats had organised a trip to view wildflowers: ten of us assembled at Wongan Hills Caravan Park on Friday afternoon and various activities were planned for the weekend. J and I were sharing a cabin. It was a very cold night and I woke up to find some intrepid campers in tiny tents just outside. It was 8 degrees but felt colder at 6.30 am:

Many members of our group belong to the Wildflower Society and are extremely knowledgeable. I am very lazy about learning botanical names and was put to shame by how little I know! The Saturday excursion was to Mt Matilda, a 5 km walk trail which took us about 3 hours to complete. There was a group photo near the top:

One of the objectives of the day was to find the rare Beyeria apiculata, previously observed in the area by Jolanda Keeble. We were joined by two students from Curtin (the only people under 60!) and they were the ones to spot this insignificant plant. They had magnificent cameras and took brilliant close-up photographs. In fact the plant was not quite so rare as we had imagined: there were hundreds of them. Here is my attempt at photographing them:

I still can’t believe such an insignificant specimen can be of such interest! The two lads posed for me:

They had driven up from Perth for the day and headed home after this. 

The walk trail had many more wildflowers than I had ever seen in one place before and all different from my Dalwallinu and Coalseam trips of a month ago:

Pink isopogons



Tiny fringe lilies, about half the size of those in the Perth Hills.

Pink and white eremophila

Melaleuca 

Petrophile (means “rock lover”) . The trail was indeed very rocky and - even though very dry - infested with giant mosquitoes which bit me through my leggings!

Comesperma: a twining creeper.

Silver dryandra with a drosera climbing up it.






Dampiera

Hakea gilbertii


It was an incredible day of wildflower hunting. The experts noted at least 40 different species.