There are 29 Fabiaceae species in Foxes Lair and many others in the district. 
They all have five petals whose shape has evolved specifically for pollination by native bees.

• The large top petal called a banner usually has a differently coloured 'bullseye patch' at its base, which attracts the bee to a nectar gland is. Because bees can see ultraviolet light, the bullseye patch stands out even more for them than for us. For more information see this paper.

• ​Below this, two sideways- aligned petals called wings project out as a landing point, and cover the stamens and pistil.
• Under the stamens and pistil is the keel, which consists of two petals, joined to form a boat - shaped base to stop insects getting at them for below.

This series of images shows the flower parts of a Daviesia as it was progessively dissected

There is a range of flower sizes, which would fit a number of pollinators, but they are all designed for the bee to land on the flower from the front. The bee's claws push the wings down  and the bee's abdomen contacts the pistil and stamens. Megachile bees have furry tummies, which then collect  pollen.
European honey bees don't play by the rules. They often steal nectar from the side of the flower. I recently saw honey bees chewing into Daviesia flowers before they had opened. The bees destroyed flowers and ate the pollen. With their overwhelming numbers, they reduce pollination and native bee numbers.

Kennedia prostrata (Running Postman) is an oddity, and one of the first plants to recolonise in the season following a bushfire.
The plant can form cluster roots  enables it to extract phosphorus from organic souces such as charcoal.
The large red flower is designed for bird pollination, presumably because birds colonise burnt areas before insects. Unlike other pea flowers,the wings don't cover the keel allowing a honeyeater to accurately place its beak  to get nectar and pollinate the flower.

Here are some other local Fabeaceae.

Wire-Leaf Mistletoe Amyema preissii has dense bunches of bright orange-red flowers which produces copious amounts of nectar, but no perfume (that I could detect) - a great example of bird pollinating flowers. However, I was perplexed by flower peculiarities.

• Stamens and pistil project out to touch a bird’s head as it drinks nectar, but petals are open right down to the ovary. This allows short-tongued insects like ants, flies, and honeybees to steal nectar without pollinating the flower.
• Flowers were open or closed with very few in between.
• In early morning nectar leaked out of closed flowers and collected on the bulbous end, but there was no sign of nectar on anthers or pistil of open flowers.

Intrigued, I revisited a flowering mistletoe for several days and dissected flowers at varying stages. It was a great learning experience!

The closed downward hanging flower consists of five tepals which are fused into a long tube with a bulbous end. The anthers and stigma are packed so tightly at the end that they resist entry from nectar flowing down from the flower base.
When the flower is ready to open, nectar flows down the inside, escapes from joins between tepals on the side, and coats the end. There were lots of bees on open flowers but they avoided the nectar on unopened flowers. Didn't like sticky claws?
When I dissected closed flowers I could see that stamens and anthers form a straight line from the centre of the tepal, but the end of the tepal that encloses them is curved. This creates a spring mechanism, which is held in place by stronger join at the end of the tepal.
Perhaps, when honeyeaters lick nectar off the flower end, the motion causes the flower to spring open so the bird can pollinate it.

About 10% of the flowers remained closed apart from a tiny dark dot on the outside, which marked the point where a moth or other insect laid an egg. Inside was a 3mm translucent grub, which ate the flower's reproductive parts then formed a dark brown pupa.

Honey bees were at the flowers from dawn to dusk with the occasional Campanotis chalceus ant. They were able to steal nectar without contacting anthers and stigma, but pollination occurred when bees collected pollen from the anthers. After seeing a bee eating pollen I learnt that honey bees have 2 stomachs: One for eating pollen and nectar for energy,and the other for storing honey for the hive.

At late afternoons a pair of large Australian Hornets buzzed in regularly to feed, and just once a Silky Azure butterfly. This was a great find as they are very rare in this district. The caterpillar larvae eat  flower buds, flowers, leaves and soft stem parts of the mistletoe, but are particularly fond of the flower buds.

I decided to check out bush at Thomas Hogg Oval where Jam Wattles Acacia acuminata were infested with mistletoe (only occasional occurrence in Foxes Lair). This is typical of isolated small areas of bush. Apparently possums love eating mistletoe, particularly the flowers. As possums can't survive fox and cat predation in small areas with few trees, mistletoe gets out of control. There were lots of honeyeaters but fewer bees. Many mistletoes were old and dying back. Flowers on some were dying from extensive  infestation of giant scales, which were being attended by aggressive meat ants.
Sadly an unbalanced ecosystem. 

Further information Mistletoe blog

Sedges and rushes  are not the most exciting plants in our bush, but they are an important part. These plants protect the soil from erosion and are important habitat plants for insects, spiders, larger animals, and birds. They become obvious on misty mornings when each one becomes a dewy spider palace. Before European settlement, these plants were habitat and food for numerous emus, small rodents and marsupials, which are locally extinct. Rushes and sedges are still important habitat in wetlands. Western Grey Kangaroos and even foxes nibble sedge leaves.

​I am writing this blog for myself because descriptions and common names for this group are confusing.

A commonly used rhyme to distinguish between grasses, sedges, and rushes is.
“Sedges (Cyperaceae) have edges, rushes (Juncaceae)  are round, grasses (Poaceae) have knee joints all the way to the ground”.
This rhyme is not useful in WA.

Does it matter if you can't tell the difference? Occasionally yes when weeds are involved. A recent example was a decision to replace Bull Rushes in Narrogin Creek with Common Reed Phragmites Australis, which is an introduced weed. Phragmites is certainly impressive and probably isn’t a problem there apart from blocking the creek, but it kills adjoining plants and is an aggressive weed in coastal wetlands.

Here are my local rules of thumb.

Grasses (Poaceae), sedges (Cyperaceae), rushes (Juncaceae) and southern rushes (Anarthriaceae and Restionaceae) are all wind pollinated monocotyledons, which grow as annuals or clumping perennials. Perennial plants spread by horizontal underground roots called rhizomes.
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There are lots of native and introduced grasses around, which can be easily identified  by their hollow stems and stem joints called nodes.

​Sedges and rushes don’t have nodes, usually have solid pithy stems, and their leaves arise from a rhizome near the ground. Wetland species commonly called rushes may actually be sedges or grasses. For example, Bull Rush or Cumbungi / Typha species are wetland grasses. Cumbungi is a bush tucker plant, which I decided to taste recently in the spirit of citizen science. Chewing a peeled rhizome was less than successful, so I cooked some in the microwave. Result: Texture = rope, taste = blah! Perhaps I should have collected my sample in the growing season and not from a roadside ditch. When I first came to Narrogin, Cumbungi groves formed wonderful bird nesting areas in Railway Dam. Our drying climate has almost eliminated them now.

Locally, the classic round, smooth-leaved rushes are mostly weeds. Toad Rush  Juncus bufonius is a tiny annual weed which was a problem in wet areas in crops before no-till farming.
Spiny Rush Juncus acutus is an introduced spiny weed, which infests our damp waterways and dams. Despite this it is useful for reducing erosion in wet salty areas, and as wildlife habitat.
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​Sedges may have flat or angled leaves (‘edges”) or not. I have noticed that flat-leaved species tend to be larger plants, which occur more often in winter wet/summer dry areas on slopes and flats. Flowers are often surrounded by spiky bracts and each produces a single small nut.

Schoenus species are small narrow-leaved sedges. Ground-hugging Schoenus calcaratum would be a delightful addition to the native garden.

A special group In southwestern WA is called southern rushes. Unlike sedges and rushes, they are dioecious (have male and female plants). There are two families, Anarthriaceae (mainly near to the coast), and (local) Restionaceae.
Restionaceae are funky mat-like plants with round green to grey-green stems (culms),and brownish scale leaves, which often occur in patches in open kwongan or woodland. Being very tough plants which can withstand short-term waterlogging then drought, they are often found on open gravel, sand,or sand over clay.
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Lepidobolus species have curly snake-like culms

Desmocladus species have branched culms and female plants with leaf sheaths that sprout clusters of short stalks each with a single flower, which make them look like branched leaves.

​Ericaceae, also called the Heath Family is common on acidic sandy and gravelly (particularly kwongan) soils. Flowers are often small, but exquisitely shaped.
Common features include.

• Prostrate or low shrubs, usually having short tough leaves with parallel leaf veins and a sharp tip.
• Flowers have free sepals surrounding petals, which are fused into a short or long tube ending in petal lobes that may be shorter or longer than the tube.
• Usually white or red/orange flowers with nectar. but may or may not have an aroma.
• Flowers often have tiny hairs or scales on upper petal surfaces on the lobes and/or inside the tube. Incidentally, these hinder non-pollinating insects such as ants from stealing nectar.
• Fruit are berries (drupes) or small capsules, which are eaten by animals. Emus are listed as major seed dispersers.
• Many of them flower early in the year from March onwards.

​Recently there has been an amalgamation of species based on shared genes from DNA analysis. The two largest genera, Astroloma and Leucopogon have been absorbed into Styphelia. These in turn belonged to mostly Western Australian family named Epacridaceae, which has been amalgamated into the formerly mostly eastern states plant family Ericace.
I can see the logic behind genetic grouping, and have a high regard for our Eastern States neighbours (despite them being a trifle strange).
However, it is rather sad for people like me with an flawed memory and even less patience to work my way through a tortuous key to identify plants with shared characteristics.

Historically, classification was based totally on shared plant features. At genus level, flower characteristics have been shaped by evolution to attract particular pollinators.
Here are a few examples.

• Colour. Insect vision is sensitive to ultraviolet and white light, but poor at the red end of the spectrum. Conversely, red stands out for birds and large animals, which are major pollinators)
• Sexual deception in orchids.
• Plants like Hibbertias and tomatoes lack nectar, but have dry loose pollen which attracts bees that use buzz pollination.
•  Plants with nectar and very long petal tubes selectively attract moths and birds. Those with short or no tube are generalists which can be pollinated by many animals including flies.
• Mammal specific flowers are often large, hidden, dull-coloured, and strongly scented with lots of nectar.

In older papers I noticed that the old genera often had different pollinators due to flower shape and colour. To me this is much more interesting than a huge genetic genus
​.
At risk of being labelled a dinosaur, I list local Ericaceae genera below using the old classification so I can easily distinguish plant groups  having shared characteristics in the bush. Some other amateurs may find it useful.​

Genus Lysinema (unchanged)
Flowers of the most common species called Curry Bush have a curry powder smell, which attracts pollinating moths. Flowers have several distinctive brown bracts, which cover most of the white flower tube. Formerly classified as Lysinema ciliatum, it has been renamed Lysinema pentapetalum. The species are very similar, but rarely interbreed. Lysinema ciliatum flowers have a sweet smell, less flowers per group, lighter coloured bracts and are mainly further south. Further information.

​Genus Andersonia (unchanged)
There is only species, Andersonia caerula - Foxtails and a few priority 2 species in Narrogin district. The stunning Foxtail flower has long pink sepals designed to attract birds and delicate pale blue petal tubes with a narrow entrance, which is packed with stamens and the pistil to keep unwanted insects out. Pollinators need a firm beak or tongue to get through to the nectar. Honeyeaters are listed as major pollinators, but bees were active when I visited them at Ylliminning Nature Reserve.

Ex-genus Astroloma (now Styphelia)
This hardy group has sepals shorter than, and which clasp a pollen tube with short hairy-interior lobes. I was surprised to learn that all local species are pollinated by Western Spinebills and honeyeaters. On reflection, it made sense because most flowers are red-orange and have tight narrow petal-tube entrances. All species have fleshy berries, which are dispersed by birds and bobtail skinks. Emus were particularly common eaters of flowers and berries. Alas no longer in our widely dispersed reserves. As many Astrolomas are fire-sensitive, a lack of emus to disperse seed could threaten their long term survival. They are generally very tough and long-lived, and have evolved to live in dry places.
​There are five species in Foxes Lair.

​Ex-genus Leucopogon (now Styphelia)
There are many species in Narrogin district reserves, which have similar looking flowers - small whitish flowers with long petal-tube lobes, usually with an abundance of fluffy hairs on upper side of the lobes. They are exquisite close-up. The short open petal tube provides nectar access for a range of flying insects (flies wasps butterflies and moths, gnats, birds), but bees are the main pollinators.
​There are three species in Foxes Lair.
References
Keighery 1996 Phytogeography, Biology and Conservation of Western Australian Epacridaceae
​De Gruyter Eight Pollination Syndromes​

​Greetings fellow foxies,

Every year, tourists flock north to see mass everlasting displays in the Northern Wheatbelt and pastoral areas.
Narrogin district has many of these wildflowers, which belong to the Asteraceae (daisy) family, also known as Compositae.  Patches of colourful spring everlastings occur in most years, particularly in wandoo-sheoak woodland, and in wet areas.

​​Asteraceae includes spring flowering annuals, which flower in groups and perennials which often occur as scattered plants.
Flowers in this family share the following characteristics:
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Deceptive flowers occur as a group on a single stem, which looks like a single large flower.
​Think of a sunflower head, which comprises a cup-shaped calyx of scale-like leaves (bracts) enclosing numerous tiny flowers. Flower petals are fused into a tube (corolla) with tiny triangular ends. These are called disk flowers. Often the outer row of flowers has a single large petal-like lobe, which extends out so the flowering head resembles a single flower. These are called rim flowers.
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Each tiny flower has numerous hairs surrounding the corolla. which enable the dry seeds to blow away easily. 

I have created three categories to illustrate the variation in design of the flowering head.
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1. Rim flower species in the Narrogin district. There are also several weed species, which are not shown.

The following two groups lack rim flowers in the flowering head.
2. Disk flowers only forming a button-shaped head. 

Stamens are not visible in Antheraceae flowers, because they use secondary pollen presentation.
​
​Stamens remain in the base of each flower with the pollen bearing anthers facing the style in the centre. As the plant develops, the style pushes up and collects pollen, which sticks on hairs below the end (stigma). Pollen remains viable on the style for up to a week, after which it dies. Stigma lobes at the end of the style then open out to expose the active female surface to be fertilised by pollen from other flowers

Individual flowers produce a drop of nectar at their base. They don't all mature at once, but start on the outside and mature inwards often in a spiral fashion. This induces insects to repeatedly visit the flowering head and visit each flower as it changes from pollen presentation to the pollen receiving phase.