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.