FOTD – June 29 – Southern Plains Banksia (Banksia media)

The banksia i identified earlier this month as a ‘pink’ B. epica i think is actually a Banksia media! I managed to catch it with a decent camera and not with the smartphone this time. The variations of flowers on this one small (about 3 m wide by 2 m tall) bush are amazing! 🙂

These plants are very ancient with fossilised examples having been found that are over 55 million years old!

(Click on a pic to open in a new window and click again to see enlarged detail!) 🙂The complete first stage of inflorescence! (flowering stalk)

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Starting of the second stage of inflorescence! The little brown ‘finger’ below is an immature first stage inflorescence.

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Second stage progresses… a rainbow of colours: orange, yellow, green, pink, cream…

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Nearly complete… there may be up to 6000 individual flowers on a single stalk. In close up you can clearly see the pairing of two flowers together.

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The third stage commences – the pair-joined flower buds fully open losing their pinky-brown covering. The open flowers in the bottom half are covered in sweet nectar making them very popular for ants and insects as well as nectar eating birds and those that feed on the insects.

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From first stage of inflorescence to the final stage – death and very gradual decay! The two large brown flowers were likely from last years bloom, and may even be two years old.  The large ones would be 25cm long and 10 cm wide. (10 x 4 in)

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link to:

Cee’s Flower of the Day – June 28, 2019 – Peony (??)

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