Goodenia cycloptera

Goodenia cycloptera - Serrated Goodenia

Family - Goodeniaceae

Common name - Serrated Goodenia

Flowers - Yellow to pale yellow flowers, 3 erect petals and 2 downward facing petals. 10 to 15mm long. Flowers are on leafy racemes ascending from basal leaves. Pubescent (hairy) on the outside of the flower and in the throat of the flower.

Leaves and stem - Leaves toothed, with basal leaves larger than leaves on ascending stems. Softly hairy.

Habit and habitat - prostrate to ascending herb to 30mm. Sandy soil. There are 17 Goodenia reported to be native to The Pilliga.

Sepals to 3mm. Brown, hairy sections are the back of petals.

Basal leaves of a new plant

Habit varies

Isopogon petiolaris

Distinctive flowers of Isopogon petiolaris (Spreading Cone Bush)

Family - Proteaceae

Common name - Spreading Cone Bush, Drumsticks

Flowers and fruit - Flowers are carried in terminal yellow globular clusters, larger than 2cm diameter. Flowers are conspicuous and followed by rounded cones. Isopogon petiolaris can flower any time in spring and summer.

Leaves - Light green leaves are deeply lobed, stiff with a sharp point, and up to 15cm long. The leaf stalk is up to 9cm long and is two-thirds of the leaf length.

Habit and habitat - A low mounded ground cover to upright shrub less than a meter tall. Isopogon petiolaris is an eye-catching plant when flowering. It grows in dry sclerophyll forest and heath, commonly in stony sites. In The Pilliga it can occur in dry sandstone country.

Flowers, fruit and leaves of Isopogon petiolaris

Spreading habit of Isopogon petiolaris

Jacksonia scoparia

Jacksonia scoparia

Family - Fabaceae

Common name - Dogwood

Flowers and fruit - Flowers are orange-yellow with red centres on terminal racemes in upper axils. The calyx is 5-lobed reddish-brown and covered with silky hairs. The seed pod is oblong-elliptic, 6 to 12mm long, flattened, reddish-brown and covered in long whitish hairs. Flowering Oct to Nov.

Leaves and stems- Leafless (leaves usually reduced to scales). Angular branches are minutely downy giving them a grey appearance.

Habit and habitat - A tall leafless shrub generally to 3m but can grow much taller. Branches are often drooping and bear a profusion of flowers, making Jacksonia scoparia very showy and noticeable. It grows on low-nutrient gravel or sandy soils in exposed positions and hillsides and ridges.

Leafless branches of Jacksonia scoparia (Dogwood)

Reddish-brown seed pods of Jacksonia scoparia covered in silky hairs

Drooping habit of Jacksonia scoparia on roadside

 

'Fascination' growing on Jacksonia scoparia

A 'fascination' is an abnormal growth in which the growing tip becomes elongated, flattened, ribbon-like, crested or elaborately contorted. More information here.