Lobelia angulata

Lobelia angulata or Pratia angulata is flowering strongly. The small white dainty flowers are 5-merous with the petals united into an upperlip three- lobe and lower lipped two-lobe corolla that is split to its base. The berries are crimson red.

The plant forms a large ground hugging mat and prefers dappled light.

Manuka and Kanuka Flowers

Manuka Leptospermum scoparium and Kanuka Kunzea ericoides both produce a profusion of small flowers. Manuka flowers in spring while Kanuka flowers later, beginning its display in early summer. However, both are flowering around me at the moment.

Manuka has solitary flowers 8-25mm in diameter. Often the petals have a red tint. The stamens are shorter than the petals.
The flowers of kanuka are in clusters of between 8 and 20 and are between 4 and 8 mm in diameter. The many stamens are longer than the petals.

Phormium tenax spathe

I maintain flax is New Zealand's most iconic plant due to its cultural significance, large distribution and the beauty of it's foliage and flowers. Have you ever noticed the splendour of the spathe- the bract that protects the developing inflorescence?

Carmichaelia australis

The common New Zealand leafless broom with handsome seeds set in an open capsule- termed a replum.

The papilionate flowers are equally impressive.
This plant is perfect for pots on the balcony. I can vouch for it thriving on neglect!

Christmas greetings from Whangaroa

Christmas is the time of Pohutukawa.

Libertia peregrinans

This orange leaved native Iris exhibits attractive leaf shape and colour, with white flowers and orange fruits. It is a hardy ground-cover for all gardens. Note the three sepals below the three petals. Plants with flower parts in groups of three are termed trimerous.

OMG! Here comes the houseboat!

Charters are still available for Summer Holidays.

What better way to enjoy the beautiful Whangaroa Harbour than on the houseboat Maple Leaf

Check it out from here

Lophomyrtus rohutu

Lophomyrtus bullata x obcordata

The cultivars of Lophomyrtus produce interesting and eyecatching flowers in early summer.

There are two species of Lophomyrtus, the New Zealand

myrtles.

Hybrids may exist,and horticultural selection has resulted in many named and unnamed varieties.

Both Lophomyrtus species are popular ornamentals due to their range of vibrant foliage,

attractive flowers and fruits, and hardiness.

The numerous male anthers arise opposite the five petals.

Pohutukawa flower

There's so much botany going on here. The five red petals , five green stamens, both with the small hairs on the margins, the way in which the crimson stamens arise from the margin of the floral cup or hyapanthium, the single central style and the ant feeding on nectar. And it's New Zealand's favourite summer tree flowering at the minute. Pohutukawa. Good light, colour and composition

Fuchsia procumbens

The golden yellow floral tube with sharply reflexed sepals. Petals are absent in this coastal species. This Fuchsia scrambles through coastal gravels in northern New Zealand. It makes an ideal ground cover for all gardens. I love the contrasting blue pollen and red anthers.

Flowing Leaves

Courtesy of Woman's day

Classifying lichen

Lichens never fail to surprise me, both with their form and the nature of their existence. They are composed of a fungus and an algae that together are mutually beneficial and together create a unique species. A simple way to group them is to organise them by their growth forms. Fruticose, foliose or crustose.

Usnea Parmeliaceae bearded lichen. Fruticose lichens may be upright on the ground or hanging from twigs.

Pseudocyphellaria Foliose lichen growing on dead Kunzea ericoides kanuka
Crustose lichens Form a crust on the surface. Describes lichens that adhere to the surface of trunks or bark, or rocks.

Kauri Greenhood orchid Pterostylis agathicola

The unusually shaped hooded orchids are in flower this week. These ground orchids appear from spring to summer, then die down for winter. The shape of the flower protects the reproductive parts from the weather and also helps to trap small insects which act as the pollinator.

The hooded part of the flower is termed a gallea. Note the tail like appendages from the anterior petals.
The anterior petals are united. Can you see the red tipped female stigma behind it?.

Rewarewa flowers

Knightia excelsa

Family: Proteaceae

Rewarewa is a tall, slender or columnar tree reaching 30 m high, with a trunk up to 90–100 cm in diameter and smooth, dark brown to black bark. Branches are held upright and branchlets are velvety. The oblanceolate leaves are coarsely toothed, 10–15 cm long by 2.5–4 cm wide, and slightly longer and narrower on juvenile plants. The conspicuous flowers arise on the branchlets in dense racemes about 10 cm long, deep velvety red, tipped with yellow and partly coiled in a wiry mass.

The handsome inflorescence is a stout raceme composed of many tightly packed crimson flowers. The singular club-shaped style is topped with a green band and may be up to 3cm. long.
The petaloids (diminished petals) curl spirally to show a band of blue on the inner surface. I love the way the colours of the floral parts contrast to make the inflorescence very eye catching.

The flower stalks are densely clad in a red-brown velvety tomentum. Contemplate the architecture of the spirally coiled petaloids.