ausrpned said:Responsible muncher ID'd.

Fascinating. Sad to see the inflorescence go down, but interesting how you could identify the animal responsible.

Thats why i want to go to africa and not austrlia.
I can protect myself better from animals there......

Been trying to get these Parrots, we call this species 28's, for some time.

Long shots but you can see one of them feeding on the Geraldton Wax(Chamlaucium uncinatum) seedpods.

There are four of them every morning but difficult to get close to.

Hope to post some better photo's at a later date.


Cheers

Xmas is nigh, Nuytsia floribunda starting to flower.


Cheers

This looks more than interesting, Hatiora gaertneri appears to have set a fruit.

Hopefully that is the case and any seed is viable.

Have only the one Hatiora gaertneri plant so unless the species is self fertile, it will take some time and luck, to determine the pollen parent.



Cheers

These are called Spitfires, since young I have taken some care around them, doesn't stop me cutting off the branch segments, they can certainly chew there way through the exclusively(?) Eucalyptus leaves.

Poultry won't touch them, that must say something. Possibly they accumulate something as they feed then shoot it out if threatened
.

A. iteaphylla trees have started shedding their seed.

Cheers

Searching my photos noticed some dealing with a Nightbreak test I did in 2016.

There was a completely unexpected event when I checked wearing a Head Lamp, the Hylo etc segments appear to have become transparent to a portion of the red spectrum resulting in a red, rather than black, shadow!

Collected some pollen for storage today. I let it dry for a couple of hours then put it into size 4 gelatine capsules.

The capsules are placed in screw topped jars together with Milk Powder for humidity control.

Cheers

Male Kei Apple flowered again over the week, this i the third time this year, Female only flowered once and is still developing fruit from it's last flowering.

Cheers

The Amyema preissii locally, have started coloring flower buds, doubt however flowering will start before the beginning of the next year.

Cheers

Gladiolus caryophyllaceus - Wild Gladiolus(Alien in WA)

Currently having seed dispersed by strong ESE/SW winds.


Cheers

The closest we'll get to a white Xmas.

Most likely Melaleuca preissiana, during a wild fire the trees go up like a drum of oil. More than impressive.




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During winter cutting up firewood, came across what is referred to as a Witchety Grub, at the base of the tree trunk.

Had come across them before in other wood cutting episodes and took one in the section of wood I found it, to the WA Museum.

They sent me a PDF file, Giant moths.pdf, which I have been unable to find on the Net. It identified it as the larval stage of a Giant Moth.

Extract from Giant moths.pdf:
Giant Moths and Witchety Grubs

Common usage has broadened the meaning of the term 'witchety grub' (variously spelled 'witjuti', 'wichetty', etc.) well beyond its aboriginal one and sometimes it is used for virtually any very large grub excavated from soil or tree stems or roots including beetle as well as moth larvae.

This time decided to keep it and felt a likely useful habitat for it would be in my spent Tea leaf container which I use in Worm boxes when there is sufficient to make it worthwhile.

About a week ago decided to put the accumulated material in one of my Worm Boxes and was pleased to see the larva was still alive.

Saw it again when I did a split of the Worm culture today. Hoping it will survive, pupate and produce a Moth in due course.

Cheers

There have been two warm days lately, shade 42.3-4°C, the K. plicatilis seed capsule has changed color so it may not be too long before it is ready to split open and release seed(if any).


Cheers

Yes, you're on the home stretch now.

Looking at the K. plicatilis seed capsule this morning, decided to remove it as all development had stopped and the attachment to the plant had dried up.

As can be seen in the photos, it is highly unlikely there are any viable seeds present when the debris is compared to the extract of the illustration found earlier.



Have left one portion of the capsule intact, will place it in a Bottle Baggie with moistened Azolla, doubt whether any thing will come of it.

Cheers

Was the capsule breaking open on its own or did you have to force it? Was it soft inside? Do you think there were seeds in there that just didn't develop? Or maybe some kind of insect or something was dining on the contents? The debris looks pretty devoid of seeds to me.

Don't leave the last part of the capsule in a closed, humid environment, that will not help at all. I have harvested unripe aloe fruit and the best approach seems to be leaving it open to the air on my desk, or inside a paper envelope that can breathe freely. Sometimes the ripening happens after the fruit has been harvested, and I've gotten viable seeds from green fruit that way.

Baja_Costero said:Was the capsule breaking open on its own or did you have to force it? Was it soft inside? Do you think there were seeds in there that just didn't develop? Or maybe some kind of insect or something was dining on the contents? The debris looks pretty devoid of seeds to me.

Don't leave the last part of the capsule in a closed, humid environment, that will not help at all. I have harvested unripe aloe fruit and the best approach seems to be leaving it open to the air on my desk, or inside a paper envelope that can breathe freely. Sometimes the ripening happens after the fruit has been harvested, and I've gotten viable seeds from green fruit that way.

In the second part of the first photo you can see the capsule was opening at the top at the time I removed it.

Did break open the two compartments of the capsule later. The first compartment held only debris, part of what is in the second photo, I then broke open another compartment to encounter the same.

Intend to break open the last compartment when I sow what's in the remaining compartment.

No sign of any insect damage, may be when I brushed the flower only part of the pollen had some ability to establish a fruit set, or alternatively the plant may not be able to self but will set a berry.

If possible I will make a determined effort next flowering, hopefully with a better result.

Sometimes the ripening happens after the fruit has been harvested, and I've gotten viable seeds from green fruit that way.

......That's interesting, in future if I have more than one capsule will give that a try.

......Have some idea of the stage at which I should do it given the current effort, would remove it approximately ......three weeks before the current time at which I removed this capsule.

Cheers

Mistletoe started flowering last week.




Cheers