I must admit I wish I knew the names of more trees and flowers but I’m pretty good compared to the average person in the street.
I must admit I miss gum trees and Australian natives, but are more conscious that people do not talk about trees they way they would have 50 or 100 years ago. Yes we all know an Oak tree and Pine trees, but for the majority of people that is as far as it goes.
Bee Keeping means I’m more conscious of what is flowering locally but I’m blind to trees that have not got pollen, nectar or propolis for the bees. We are all guilty of taking trees for granted
There are some great books, specifically for Euc.'s my favourite is Field Guide to Eucalypts, M.I.H. Brooker & D.A. Kleinig. It’s divided into three main regions of Australia. It shows how to I.D by bark types, then inflorescence 7 seed capsules & leaves. It’s expensive but most libraries have it & worth a look just to get a handle on the main species even. If you’re really interested I can scan a few of broader I.D keys, etc. & post link or send them to you?
I concur. We have Vol 1 which covers Eastern Aust and Vol 2 which covers Western Aust. The most accurate way to identify Eucalypts I have found is using, Eucalyptus Buds and Fruits Edited by G M Chippendale. You compare the buds and fruit to the life size accurate illustrations.
I regularly have to re identify trees…the ravages of time taking toll of the memory.
Plant - and all of nature - awareness is & should be learned. I was fortunate to be raised in a family of naturalists who gave me this priceless gift. I think it’s wonderful that so many of the new beekeepers I’ve come across, who approached the practice initially through desire for honey, have ended up acquiring better knowledge of their natural surroundings.
What fo people think of starting a thread where people post a picture of a tree or plant they dont know or want to stump others with and we can work it out together?
I have a simple solution, learn all about one new species every week. By the end of the year we’ll know 52 new species. I can’t say that I know more species than the average person on the street:(
@Dunc@JeffH I like both your ideas! Just beware, my husband is an arborist & I’m not too shabby myself ️:deciduous_tree:
At least for my native plants & trees - it would be fun to learn more about yours & others’.
Hi Eva, this a video I made a few years ago when our Golden Pender was in full bloom. Our tree doesn’t flower all that often. But this time it was in full bloom at the same time as all the others were & it was the talk of gardening talk-back at the time. The birds calling that I wasn’t sure of the species turned out to be Pied Butcher Birds.
These are a native species & apart from the birds & honeybees that feed on them, the native bees absolutely love them. In this video at the 1 minute mark, we got a beautiful shot of a native bee laden with pollen
Hi Eva, thank you:) wow that’s fantastic. I hope you make it over here. I don’t feed the birds like I used to, however when I was feeding them a lot more, our back verandah was like a bird sanctuary. They say you shouldn’t feed the birds anyway. They get up to some funny antics. Here’s two of our bird videos I hope you and your family enjoy.
Over here in the west rainbow lorikeets are an introduced species and are devastating vineyards and orchards. They visit here and can strip a fruit tree in an hour. Kookies are introduced here too strangely enough and they love to eat the native species eggs and young.
Perhaps we should start a bird thread too. I focus on planting flowering natives here to bring the birds in and give them a bit of a sanctuary which seems to work, I get a thrill of seeing a new species and ticking it off the list and the neibours cat is going to cop it if I find one more carcass in the yard.
That’s it I’m starting a bird thread!
Well done Greg, I knew that Kookas were introduced over there but not the Rainbow Lorikeets. Pesky little things. Lychee farmers have to have expensive netting over the orchards on account of the lorikeets. Also figs & I’m sure lots of other crops. I haven’t seen the lorikeets touch my strawberries, however this morning I saw a Currawong eating one. I suspect that the White Faced Heron might be responsible for some strawberry damage.
We had a rainbow bee eater flying over our hives the other day having a feast! Beautiful bird, but I was a bit concerned we might have an unlucky queen out for her mating flight!!
I just picked up 3 cat traps from council after finding 4 dead birds in my garden, 2 rosellas, blur=e wren, scrub wren. I know whose cat it is & they say they don’t care what it does…
