As yesterday was Threatened Species Day in Australia, the Friends hosted a special guided walk in our Botanic Gardens. It was also election day for Federal Parliament, so there were a few other threatened species as well - but we won't go into that!
The day was magnificent so I couldn't resist taking this photos as I listened!
Maya is explaining the significance of the Tree Omphalea, the inspiration for the Bungy Jumping Caterpillar book
These are the flowers of the Omphalea, which never open more than this and so far nobody knows quite how they are fertilized. We are selling these plants so hopefully there will be a lot growing around Mackay soon.
Dale is explaining that these Black Ironbox Eucalypts are very slow growing and their habitat is being destroyed.
These Bismarkia palms are grown all over the world as horticultural species, but are endangered in their native Madascar
This crinum lily is not endangered, but I love the flowers, especially the closeup
Neither is this Fern leafed Grevillea - but again lovely flowers.
This wattle is very aptly named Pretty Wattle. By this stage I had given up trying to take photos of the endangered plants as they had no flowers and do not necessarily look very interesting.
This Wallum bottlebrush is the most gorgeous red
I love these Coastal Caper shrubs, they flower so profusely
Then of course we saw these two pelicans preening on the water pump in the lagoon! Double click on any of the photos to enlarge them.
How sad to have to have an endangered species day but, hopefully it drew attention to the plight of the plants. Lovely photos and the crinum lily is beautiful.
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