Red flowers in our wheatbelt come in a range of shapes and sizes, but they are nearly all pollinated by birds. Some red flowers also pollinated by marsupials such as the honey possum, but this fascinating article describes how the colour red looks more vivid to birds than to mammals and marsupials.
Worldwide indicators of a bird-pollinated plant are
• Bright red, white, (which most insects can’t see well) or yellow flowers.
•Tube-shaped flowers with abundant nectar at the base, and adjoining stamens and pistil projecting about 3 to 5cm out from the nectar source.
• Sturdy flowers that can support birds (exception hummingbirds)
• Little or no aroma, but lots of dilute nectar

​Here are local examples of tube shaped flowers from a range of genera.

Most bird-pollinated flowers are large, but there are exceptions like these red astrolomas (now Styphelia species) that provide nectar to very small honeyeaters like the Brown Honeyeater, and the Western Spinebill. Note the hairy flower entrance, which is designed to discourage nectar-stealing insects like ants. White-flowered members are often pollinated by insects like butterflies and moths that have with long feeding tubes. 

Bird pollination is particularly important in this area because there are so many flowering species, and which are often in specific locations or soil types. For example Eucalyptus caesia mallees occurs on separate granite outcrops. Birds suit these plants because they can carry pollen further, particularly after large bushfires.

Millions of years of relative stability have allowed the evolution from bee to bird-pollinated flowers. The process has led to variations from the applying to bird pollination in other parts of the world.
Bird-pollinated flowers here can have a range of shapes, be scented, and be located close to the ground. Genera such as Eucalyptus, Banksia, Hakea, and Grevillea may be pollinated by more than one animal as well as insects. 


Grevillea and Hakea flowers have superbly adapted long and curling styles, which deliver and accept pollen (using secondary plant pollination) on specific points of a honeyeater's head or beak. Some are highly scented which suggests alternative pollinators. A good example is beetle-pollinated Grevillea eryngioides at Harrismith Nature Reserve.

Insect pollinators become more important with smaller Grevillea/Hakea flowers. Plants are often very spiny,and flowers are strongly scented. A good example is Hakea lissocarpha which has profuse groups of flowers with short straight styles and a strong almost cloying aroma. In this Foxypress I describe the variety of insects and a honeyeater I observed on a plant one July.

Bird pollination is most common in  WA in brush-shaped flowers such as bottlebrushes and Calothamnus, which coat a bird with pollen when it lands and feeds, and bowl-shaped eucalypt flowers.

Most eucalypts are pollinated by birds, but the bowl shaped base provides access to a range of pollinators.The Purple Crowned Lorikeet uses its brush-tipped tongue to gather nectar from massed bunches of eucalypt flowers. Unfortunately I infrequently see them in our bush, and hope that the introduced Rainbow Lorikeet doesn't establish here. Honeyeaters and Western Silvereye are very common.

Note. Australian plants evolved in the absence of introduced European Honeybee which have advantages that enable them to strongly compete with native insects, birds and animals.They are a communal species fostered by humans, operate continuously, and are larger than most native bees. The damn things are everywhere!
A walk through the Narrogin Arboretum reveals a range of eucalypt flower adaptations, which have evolved to favour birds. Many flowers have white or yellow stigma and stamens, but the bud caps and flower cups are often red. Several red-flowering species also have white-flowering variants..

Other adaptations are drooping flowers, crowded stamens, and ball shaped flower clusters, which favour bird access rather than insects.

Other genera have only a few bird pollinated members such as the large-flowered fire ephemeral Kennedia Prostrata, which germinates profusely after fire then dies back to a few plants after 5 years or so. Bright red blooms against black ash attract birds which can fly the distance into large burnt areas.

The small Red Leschenaultia flower doesn't look typical for bird pollination, unlike the uncommon Lechenaultia tubiflora. Most other species use insects.

Exceptions?
There are a few that may cause confusion.
Drosera menziesii Pink Rainbow can have bright red flowers, but they are mostly pink to shiny magenta colours, which are highly UV reflective colours for insects.

​Ptilotus mangesii Pom Poms, and Ptilotus declinatus Curved Mullah Mullah. There are also magenta POm Pom versions that are very UV reflective, and they flower late in the season often against a yellow or brown background which insects see better.

In this area these beautiful wildflowers are shrubs that usually occur on sandy and gravelly soils and tend to flower in late Spring. Most have tubular flowers, and often have hairy/woolly vegetation and / or aromatic foliage.
The following clues indicate that flowers are superbly adapted for bee and fly pollination.

• Generally white, mauve, pink colours which suit their vision, often with darker spots to provide contrast
• Petals form a corolla tube  lined with stamens  that rub pollen on to an insect as it enters to get nectar
• The tube ends in two or 5 irregular lobes, and provide insects with landing pads and attracts their attention.
• Many flowers have tiny hooks or lobes on anthers that push pollen onto the insect.

For laymen like me identification can be a nightmare as there has been considerabe change and amalgamation over the years. In old books they have been divided over the decades into groups such as Labiatae, Laminaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Verbenaceae, and Chloanthaceae.
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I use the following rules of thumb to help me identify genera in this area

Prior LAMIACEAE (FOXGLOVE) FAMILY

Genus Microcorys - white and pale pink, tube shaped flowers with a helmet shaped upper corolla lobe, three crinkled lower lobes, and a five lobed calyx. Two fertile stamens and two infertile ones (staminodes)

Genus Hemigenia - white pink and purple tube shaped flowers with a helmet shaped upper corolla lobe, three lower lobes, and a two lobed calyx.Four fertile stamens. Leaves have rounded or blunt ends.

​Genus Hemiandra - white and pink classic mint shaped flowers with a two lobed calyx, a narrow corolla tube with two upper lobes and three lower lobes, and four fertile stamens. Hemiandras have distinctive sharp pointed leaves without petioles and opposite placement on the stem. Hemiandra pungens (Snakebush) is most common locally.

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​Genus Westringia - white, classic mint-shaped flowers with a five lobed calyx, a narrow corolla tube with two upper lobes and three lower lobes, and two fertile stamens. I usually see Westringia rigida in open woodland.

​Prior VERBENACEAE / CHLOANTHACEAE (MINT) FAMILY

Members of this family are most common in drier areas, and have drought tolerant dense woolly vegetation. There are only one or two species in each genus in this area, which vary greatly. They all occur on gravelly kwongan heath.

Dasymalla terminalus is a tallish shrub adjoining the Harrismith airstrip, which has spectacular white flowers in October.

Chloanthes coccinea is notable for its bright red flowers and sessile glandular leaves. The colour anthers and stigma extending from the corolla tube indicate bird pollination.

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​Cyanostegia Lanceolata is a tallish shrub that is very different to other Lamiaceae genera, and can be mistaken as a member of the Malvaceae family. Bright yellow stamens and the pistil are highlighted as they project out from the black corolla tube to attract buzz pollinating native bees. After pollination the corolla tube sheds leaving the calyx, which expands and glows in the sun.

Even the small and insignificant have their moment in Foxypress. I have also been described as small, but hopefully not insignificant :}
​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.

​To flower in autumn on dense gravel soil Spyridium microcephalum has to be a tough plant, hence the woolly flowering stems and leaves, and tiny flowers.
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

​After pollination the corolla tube falls out and the sepal ring grows out like a badminton shuttlecock with the seeds enclosed at its base. It then flies away in the wind leaving the expanded 'basket' bracts, which look like a flower to the unwary.
What an amazing little plant! I wonder what tiny insect pollinates them?

Shakespeare wrote 'What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculty....'
Blah blah one doesn't have to look far to see that as utter rubbish, but to his credit Hamlet's speech moves on to our flawed reality.
If only Shakespeare was around to praise Lobelia gibbosa Tall Lobelia, which is a true wonder of nature.

Lobelia gibbosa is a spindly annual herb about 15cm tall with a thickened stem and scale leaves, which flowers now amongst leaf litter on Marri open forest sands and sandy gravels. It is an amazing achievement for an annual to flower, ensure that it is pollinated, and provide seeds for the next season in midsummer.
​Single flowers open one at a time. The exquisite little blue and white flowers are difficult for humans to see, but the plant has evolved ingenious measures to ensure pollination by  insects
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Here are the plants' secrets

Root System - this is mind blowing!
For more information see page 257 of this book.
Lobelia gibbosa roots form a symbiotic relationship relationship with a fungus, which is called an ericoid mycorrhiza (mainly found in in the Ericaceae shrub family on poor sand and gravel soils.) Like many orchids, germinating Lobelia seeds won't develop without mycorrhizal fungi. Ericoid mycorrhizas generally develop at 15 to 60  cms below the soil surface.
Somehow the tiny Lobelia seeds manage to get 15 to 25cm below the surface, germinate, and form a clump of thick mycorrizhal roots (called coralloid roots) that are fed by the fungus through winter and early spring. The fungus could even be transferring nutrients to the Lobelia from other plants via mycorrhizas. This provides nutrient and water storage for the Lobelia, which sends up a bean like shoot after a month to begin the normal leaf formation, growth and flowering processes.

Plant structure
When the soil dries the plant acts like a succulent using stored water in the root system and thickened stem, which gradually dries up from the base. 

​Colour
Vertebrates with red/blue/green vision can't easily distinguish small pale blue and white flowers from light brown leaf litter.
Insects can't see red and white, poorly see yellow and brown, but have good green and blue vision. A big addition is ultraviolet (UV) and insects see the colours differently depending on whether the plant tissue reflects or absorbs UV light. For an insect, blue flowers really stand out from brownish leaf litter.

Pattern
Insect eyes readily detect movement, and they are attracted to irregular edged objects that are symmetrical. Think of the rounded symmetry of daisy flowers and bilateral (right/left) symmetry of pea ... and Lobelia flowers.
A flower's reproductive parts the pistil and stamens, absorb UV light to protect them from damage, and look dark to an insect. Many flowers have (insect vision) dark bullseye spots at their centre and streaks resembling stamens to lead insects into the flower.

Precise Pollination
To ensure that each insect visit results in pollen transfer Lobelias use a sneaky mechanism called secondary pollen presentation.
The most common flower structure shown in the diagram (courtesy madaboutscience.com.au) has separate male and female parts with stamens that usually surround the female pistil. There is great variation depending on the plant species and type of pollinator.
If you look at the Lobelia flower, these are absent, but are simulated by white patterns.

A side view of the flower reveals the secret.
Five petals are fused into three lobes to make a tube for the insect to enter. I suspect that Lobelias lack sufficent stored moisture to produce nectar but rely on visual mimicry as do most orchids.
Stamens are united to form a tube containing the pistil, which pokes through the upper lobes and ends at the upturned ends. Anthers surrounding the inside of the tube at the (brown marked) end release pollen into it. The style slowly elongates up the stamen tube until its thickened  end (stigma) grows through the anther ring and like a piston, pushes a plug of pollen out to the hairy tip.
Insects pushing into the flower lift and part the upper petal lobes to reveal the pollen-covered stamen tube tip, which smears pollen on to the insect's back. The slow piston action enable the flower to recharge the tip for several insect visits.

Some days later when remaining pollen has died, the style emerges from the stamen tube into the flower allowing the stigma to unfold and reveal its inner receptive surface. As an insect enters the flower pollen from its back brushes on to the lobes and pollinates the flower.

Postscript
Later I found a group of roosting male blue banded bees in the vicinity, and read that they prefer blue flowers.

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.