In article <47f38a31$0$13288$5a62ac22@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
"Mark Wareing" <Mark@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> Have spent sometime looking through the http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/
> for an ID of this native plant, don't really have enough data to input
into a
> search.
>
> This image was taken in Albany (WA) late March:
http://tinyurl.com/324nwv
To me it looks like a Calothamnus, because of the way the flowers hang and
the
cat's paw effect at the end. Problem is that all the Calothamnus species
seem
to have long skinny leaves, not little oval ones, and they aren't (AFAIK)
in
those symmetric opposing pairs we see in your photo. It's called
decussate,
apparently (a characteristic of the Labiatae/Lamiaceae, also not covered
well
by this database).
Calothamnus villosus is common around Albany -- could it be a variant?
I'd suggest contacting the Albany Branch of the Wildflower Society of
Western
Australia:
http://www.albanygateway.com.au/town/albany/wildflowers/default.asp?sw=1004&
Let us know what you find out -- it's spectacular, isn't it?
Hmm, scratch all that. I just did a search by colour, flower season and
region and came up with Beaufortia sparsa, Swamp Bottlebrush. In the
Myrtaceae.
http://florabase.dec.wa.gov.au/browse/profile/5392
Not as good a photo of the plant as yours, but the leaves look right.
Your
photo showed the leaf arrangement, a flower in bud, and the old seed pods
on
the stem -- very comprehensive!
--
Chookie -- Sydney, Australia
(Replace "foulspambegone" with "optushome" to reply)
http://chookiesbackyard.blogspot.com/
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