Larvae

I found these guys growing in an abandoned ice-cream container. Mosquito larvae. Im still surprised at how many people dont know that its only the female mosquito that sucks blood. During feeding a mosquito can consume 3 times its own weight in food. Once a female has a full belly, she will withdraw for a few days to digest this meal and use the protein to nurture her eggs, which she will then hunt for a stagnant water source to lay them in. The larvae then hatch and feed on algae, bacteria and other microbes for a period of about 2 weeks at the end of which they will pupate. The pupa is capable of swimming but will usually only do so if disturbed to get away from predators. This stage will only last a couple of days, then the adult emerges from the pupa and the cycle begins again. For the curious, female mosquitoes only live for about 2 weeks in the wild (they have been known to live for a month in captivity). Male mosquitoes are nectar feeders and will only live about a week.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Not the greatest of photos, but he would have been 2mm across. Meet my first Christmas Spiderof the season.

Little Lizards

I was pulling out the annuals so that the beds could be replanted with the Christmas Annuals, when I scared the life out of this chap. Its a little skink, and I was wondering what was making a bee line towards my knee when I first saw him. I must have grabbed him when I was pulling the plants out as he had dropped his tail. I shifted him into some Juniper, as unfortunately he couldnt keep hiding under my knee. Skinks are very useful creatures in the garden. They prey on all sorts of garden pests that we hate. Grasshoppers, Caterpillars, Slugs, Moths, Flies, Ants, etc. If it can catch it and fit it in its gob, then it will most likely eat it. They rely mostly on the movements of their prey when hunting, so think along the lines of the T-rex from Jurassic Park, "Their sight is based on movement, if we dont move he cant see us". Also, believe it or not, a little skink can live for up to 2-3 years if conditions are good.

Resting Wings

We had just finished planting about 500 annuls in Memorial park, when this little guy decided to drop in while I was watering in the plants. He was even sweet enough to stay still while I took a couple of photos. This guy is a little damselfly. Im not 100% certain on this, but I have a rule of thumb on the difference between damselflies and Dragonflies. When resting (which is what this little guy is doing), dragonflies lay their wings flat out away from their body, making a crucifix shape. When damselflies rest, they fold their wings back behind themselves, like this little guy is doing. Now it is only a rule of thumb and Im certain there are exceptions to the rule, there always are, but its the only rule I have so far so Im sticking to it.

My Favourite Name

I love saying the name of this plant. Hebe! Hebe, Hebe, Hebe! These are quite a common plant, originally from New Zealand. A hardy little shrub that with little effort, will put on a lovely display of flowers that are just comming out of bloom now. The tiny little flowers come shades of purples, pinks and whites. If you hunt around you can get purple/white or pink/white mixes. They grow best in full sun and will benefit from a light prune every month or 2. Try not to be to hacky hacky with the pruning as they dont seem to recover quickly or well from that.

Trumpets

This is one of the first plants I learnt when I was studying plant identification at tafe, back in the once upon a time. It is an Orange Trumpet Vine, botanical name is Pyrostegia venusta.  I love the fact that its botanical name is very descriptive of what the plant is. Pyro means fire, Stege means cover and venusta means pleasing. It is a visually stunning plant when in bloom, as it is awash with these vibrant orange blossoms that honey eaters adore. It is an extremely vigorous climber, and I dont say that lightly. It will cover entire fence lines or trees, tangling onto itself. So I stress, keep it in check and if you dont have room for it to spread, then dont grow it. I remember when I first met my stepdad, he had it growing up a wall along the side of his house that would cop the afternoon sun. The plant was a good 50cm thick, yet no matter how hot the day got, the wall underneath that climber was always cool, which in turn kept the adjacent rooms cool, and his yard always had honey eaters that would drop in for a drink from this beautiful plant.

Fairly Up and Down

This lovely flower is the blossom of a Native Frangipani (Hymenosporum flavum). I absolutely love this tree, and its common name isnt a misnomer either. It is genuinely native to Australia. It can be found on the east coast of Australia, from Sydney to Cape York. It can even be found in parts of Papua New Guinea. Not native to Western Australia, it still grows rather well here. Just make sure when you plant it that it has plenty of room to grow, as it can grow 10m+. It does have a bonus that it is a fairly narrow tree. So if it grows above 10m, it would probably only have canopy width of about 3-6m. The flowers appear around September and continue to about November. The flowers fade as they age, giving a multitone effect to the tree. So they start that lovely deep butter yellow, fade to the light lemon yellow and finally fade to the white. When in bloom, the tree is a mass of the different yellows and really does look quite effective, and they have a slight fragrance to them which I absolutely love. A rewarding tree if you have the room.

Nostalgia trip.

I found a possum! This both heartens and saddens me. I can remember when I was a kid, these animals in the trees would light up at night time with little fairy lights. Working from memory, there was a possum, koala, magpie and bat. The bat was my favourite as a kid, because it was the easiest to find. I can still remember begging my mum to drive the long way to my Uncle's house so we could see them lit up. It heartens me that they still have 3 of them in the trees, even if you do have to hunt for them a bit. Its like a piece of my childhood is still clinging to the present. It saddens me a bit that they have greatly fallen into disrepair. The bat is long gone, I can only see the koala, possum and magpie now. Occasionally bits of wire and fairy light will fall down to the lawn area as they slowly rot away. They have been up in the trees for well over 20 years that I know of, and I have no idea whether they were put there by McDonald's or the Counsel. Nobody seems to know, so nobody takes responsibility. Its a shame really, as I remember they used to make me so very happy.

8 Weeks

 

So, this happened on Monday. I dont think they were forming a hive, just resting while they swarm and choose a place to set themselves up in. Unfortunately we had to get rid of these bees. That bit of black you can see in the corner of the photo is the top of a waist high fence and it is right next to the skate park. Management have issues with kidlets being that close to that many bees. Which is understandable. Protect the kiddies at all costs! On a slightly irrelevant side note, some useless information on bees that I found out today. During peak honey making season, a bee will only live for up to 8 weeks. The reason for this is they are so busy, they quite literally wear away their wings.

So Soft

I love finding these feathers about the parks. I think that it is one of the soft under feathers from one of the ducks, but I have no real idea what bird this came from. I simply know that it brightens my day when I come across them.

So Much Red

The bright red Bottlebrush that is comming into bloom all around Perth at present is most likely the popular cultivar, "Kings Park Special". They are a rewarding medium tree/large shrub that can definately handle a bit of pruning and do well as hedging plants. Bottlebrush come in several different colours, from the striking red of the Kings Park Special, to more mellow reds, pinks and even a few whites. The biggest thing with Bottlebrush is they can be easily mixed up at times with different Paperbarks and Honey Myrltes, as they are all members of the Callisttemon family. A rough rule of thumb is that bottle brushes do not have papery bark, but even then there are some exceptions to this rule and I promise you that you will be forgiven if you get the 3 mixed up.

*Curse Word* Flies

Yes, spring is comming and so are the flies. Unfortunately due to the extra rain, I reckon the flies will be bad this summer. The weather is becomming quite warm and humid, which creates ideal breading conditions for flies and blow flies to breed. My best piece of advice is to clean up, remove any rubbish and such, this takes away breeding places for flies. We emp[ty the bins and check the parks for rubbish every morning, however by putting your rubbish in the bins we dont have to try to hunt it all down and such, which means the bins get emptied in a much more timely manner. This keeps the flies at bay. See, putting your rubbish in the bin is a good thing. I heartily encourage it.

Urban Legend

Coprosma repens, or simply known as Coprosma has a bit of an urban legend about it. Some people say that the holes that you can see along the axils of the veins on the underside of the leaves are visible stomata. Now stomata are cells on the surface of the plant leaf that open and close to allow the flow of gasses in and out of the leaf. Essentially it is like a mouth, plant breaths in Carbon Dioxide and breathes out Oxygen and Water Vapor. When a plant gets dehydrated and begins to wilt, these stomata close up to help prevent any further water loss. So there are 2 main reasons why saying that the visible holes on a Coprosma leaf are stomata is false; first of all, Stomata are microscopic and cant be seen with the naked eye. Second of all, I have never seen these holes close even when the plant has wilted, which is one of the primary functions of stomata. In truth these holes are just holes. They benefit the plant, but they dont open and close to allow gasses to pass through the leaf. The holes exist as a place for the plant to grow nitrogen fixing bacteria, which increases the plants food supply as Nitrogen is a very vital part in plant health and growth. So go forth people and spread the word. Lets dispel this pesky urban legend.

Oxalis or Wood Sorrel

Due to all the rain of late, it has been hard to control some of the weeds at work. So they have gotten quite big and are flowering. I figured I would do a couple of blogs on weed identification, as it is quite common for people to pick my brain on what is a weed and how do they get rid of it.

I know this weed to be Purple Oxalis (Oxalis purpurea), but it has a multitude of common names that I have never before heard used. Every gardener I know just calls it Pink Oxalis or Purple Oxalis, however some herbicide instructions list it as Large Flowered Wood Sorrel. Like most weeds in Western Australia, it originates from South Africa and is believed arrived here as a garden plant that escaped. It prefers the heavier, more clay based soils around the South West region of WA and in domestic situations is quite a common turf weed. Even though the bulbs for this plant are usually pretty shallow, I dont recommend digging it out unless its a really small patch. It will create more work then its worth. It is an annual weed that disappears during the Summer when it gets too hot, so spraying in late winter/early spring is your best bet. Find a decent selective herbicide, it will tell you on the back what species of weed it will work on. It may list Oxalis as "Wood Sorrel", so keep an eye out. As they are bulbs, you will need to do a few repeat applications to fully remove this weed from your lawn, such is the nature of most turf weeds. One thing I do stress is ALWAYS READ AND FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS ON THE HERBICIDE PACKAGING! By following the instructions, you will get the job done more efficiently. I know its Unaustralian to read and follow instructions, but please believe me it is safer and worth doing.