Foxes Lair
  • Home
  • About Foxes Lair
    • Geology and Soils
    • History
  • Things To Do
    • Picnic Spots
    • Walking Tracks
    • Visit the Arboretum
    • Ride Your Bicycle
  • Things To See
    • Birds
    • Wildflowers
    • Trees in the Narrogin district
    • Narrogin spiders scorpions ticks
    • Layman's guide to Narrogin Spiders
    • Vertebrates
    • Fungi and lichens
  • District Ecotourist Guide
  • 1Foxypress
    • Vanishing Farms
    • Foxypress
  • Contact

Triggerplants

23/10/2016

0 Comments

 
Greetings fellow Foxies,
This issue is devoted to Foxes Lair triggerplants that mostly flower in October, and which have a fascinating method of pollination.
The male (anther) and female (pistil) parts occur side by side on a spring loaded strap called the trigger.
When an insect lands in the right place in the flower the trigger springs down on its back depositing pollen on its back and pollinating the pistil with pollen from another plant. Images below show the stages in our largest triggerplant Stylidium schoenoides or ‘Cowkick’ (mean plant!).
But being beaten up is not the only problem for insects. Apparently many triggerplants have sticky flower undersides that like sundews, trap insects to provide nutrients for the plants.
For more information see this site.

Triggerplant species in Foxes Lair are in this pdf
20_fl_stylidium_2016.pdf
File Size: 407 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

Picture
Trap ready
Picture
Trap sprung
Stylidium amoenum Lilac Triggerplant) is worth seeing on the Banksia Walk near the water tank, as are the delicate spreading Stylidium pingrupensis plants on the Valley Walk that are one of the last flowers left after spring.
Look closely and you will see that they are micro stilt plants that have raised crowns to protect them from the hot ground. a real oddity is the attractive purplish pink Stylidium leptophyllum Needle-leaved triggerplants as there is only one plant in Foxes Lair on the right opposite the mallees as you enter from Williams Road. Watch for pink tape.
Picture
Lilac Triggerplant
Picture
Needle-leaved Triggerplant
Picture
Aphids on glandular underside
0 Comments

Sun Orchids

13/10/2016

0 Comments

 
Greetings fellow Foxies,
                                      It is a great year for sun orchids. Today I found a group of at least 15 Scented Sun Orchids in a group under the green Foxes Lair sign opposite the cemetery.
Sun orchids differ from other orchids in having conventionally shaped petals and sepals but the column that contains the anthers and stigma is highly modified and adorned with wings and glands that probably attract pollinating insects. Thelymitra is derived from Greek words for ‘woman’s hood’. Lyn Alcock mentioned that the sun orchid flowers have not been lasting as long as usual this year, possibly due to lots of native pollinating insects. Be quick and select a fine day if you want to see the flowers.
Random fact: the word orchid is derived from Greek orchis, as orchids have twin tubers that resemble a pair of testicles. (Yes, orchids are for men too!)
The tubers enable orchids to survive from year to year, so they do not have to flower every year.
Orchids depend on mycorrhizal fungi to supply them with extra minerals and moisture, and will not survive if replanted.
Picture
Scented sun orchid
Picture
Tufted and hooded column
The Lemon Scented Sun Orchid (Thelymitra antennifera) occurs on winter wet soils associated with granite. The lovely Leopard Orchid Thelymitra benthamiana will flower on the clay flats near the Claypit in a few weeks.
Picture
Lemon scented sun orchid
Picture
Leopard orchid
0 Comments

Sundews

3/10/2016

0 Comments

 
PictureTendrils enclosing an aphid
​Greetings fellow Foxies,
I decided to whip up a quick article on sundews but then researched them. Oh glory!  So much to learn and so little time to do it. Why are we humans so intelligent and yet so stupid as we obsess about minor things and harm ourselves and our environment when there is so much more to our world?
The genus name Drosera comes from the Greek word “dewy” referring to modified leaves with sticky tentacles they use to catch insects. When an insect lands on them, tentacles rapidly wrap around it and exude an amazing brew of enzymes that turns them into soup – even the hard exoskeleton (chitin is a protein). Yum!
Sundews have conventional flowers with numerous styles (pollen collecting bits), and have the flowers well above the leaves (possibly to avoid insect pollinators being eaten). Vegetation colour varies with much redder forms on waterlogged and infertile soils, and parts more exposed to light

​Local categories are below (hope I’m right)
1 Sundews with bulbs. The bulb enables them to survive over summer, use  early season soil water and nutrients, and can survive without catching insects. Subcategories include:
 
1a Climbers. These are the most noticeable ones that generally use other plants as support. The Bridal Rainbow  Drosera macrantha occurs throughout Foxes Lair, but in more open country elsewhere you mainly see the lovely Sunny Rainbow Drosera subhirtella. Cup shaped leaf blades directly absorb the insect soup. THe lovely red flowered Drosera menziesii occurrs in wet hollows and waterways.
Picture
Bridal rainbow Drosera macrantha
Picture
Sunny rainbow Drosera subhirtella
Picture
Pink rainbow Drosera menziesii
​1c Rosette-forming sundews have flat leaves coated with tendrils. The name Red Ink Sundew of Drosera erythrorhiza refers to red sap in the bulb. Occuring on the claypit flats and fertile duplex soils, it sends up a flowering head after rain in April that dies off as the attractive leaves emerge. The leaves don’t absorb the insect soup that runs off to be absorbed by roots.
A few Red-leaved Sundew Drosera bulbosa plants occur on the southern side of the Claypit.
The spectacular Painted Sundew Drosera zonaria is found on very sandy soils and only flowers after fire. None of these occur at Foxes Lair but lovely clumps occur at Yilliminning Rock and Toolibin cemetery.
Picture
1b Fan-leaved sundews resemble free standing climbers but are more compact and have a basal rows of leaves. These don’t occur in Foxes lair but local species are Drosera porrecta and Drosera ramulosa.

Picture
Red ink sundew flowers before leaf emergence
Picture
Drosera erythrorhiza Red ink sundew leaf
Picture
Drosera zonaria
Picture
Drosera bulbosa Red leaved sundew

2 Pygmy sundews
are seldom noticed in Foxes Lair but are very common if you know where to look. . Despite their tiny size they are amazingly tough and can live for several years. Silvery papery scales on their growing point enables pygmy sundews to withstand soil temperatures up to 60 degrees centigrade. They also reproduce asexually by developing minute egg-like clones called gemmae (not shown) on their growing point early in the season that shed to form new plants.
Water gaining patches in the clay soil north of the Claypit are red with a carpet of Cone Sundews (Drosera androsaceae). These have lost the ability to use nitrogen taken up by their roots and rely entirely on insect soup for this nutrient.
Shaggy Sundew Drosera Scorpioides prefers moist bare gravelly areas in Foxes lair, and the beautiful orange-flowered Pimpernel Sundew Drosera glandigulera prefers more fertile soil from fresh rock.
Picture
cone sundew Drosera androsaceae
Picture
Drosera scorpioides
Picture
Pimpernel sundew Drosera glanduligera
There is a worldwide interest in growing these hungry little beauties with whole websites devoted to their care.

Please read this great sundew blog by the Wandering Scientist

0 Comments
    Picture

    Author

    Doug Sawkins is a friend of Foxes Lair who once worked for the WA Department of Agriculture

    Categories

    All
    Animals Other
    Birds
    Disorders Plant Animal
    Fungi Lichens
    History
    Insects Bugs Other Arthropods
    Landscapes Soils
    Other Reserves And Places
    Reptiles
    Spiders Other Arachnids
    Tree
    Walks Other Facilities
    Wasp
    Wildflowers Orchids
    Wildflowers Other Summer Autumn
    Wildflowers Other Winter Spring
    Wildflowers Parasitic

    Archives

    November 2019
    October 2019
    July 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    September 2018
    July 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    May 2012
    March 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    April 2011

© 2015 All Rights Reserved. Doug Sawkins, Australia.