
Recently I noticed shrubs with what I thought were silvery fluffy flowers in open woodland opposite the Nomans Lake Hall, and I had great trouble identifying them.
The reason is that I saw masses of winged seeds, which are not shown in ID guides and the flowers are incredibly small.
Spyridium is an Australian genus in the Rhamnaceae family, which is noted for having tiny flowers. Spyridiums are known as basket flowers because their flowers are clustered inside cup-like bracts.
Each flower has a ring of white feathery sepals enclosing a tubular corolla (petal tube). Anthers are clustered at the end of the tube, and a lobed stigma pokes out (probably after the anthers have died to prevent self pollination
What an amazing little plant! I wonder what tiny insect pollinates them?