Greetings fellow Foxies,
Visitors to Foxes Lair each summer could be forgiven for thinking that many understorey plants have died, but each winter they burst into life again.
 There are many plant strategies for coping with our seasonal droughts.
Each November, the marri trees drop some leaves to reduce their water use, and orchids survive as twin underground bulbs (‘orchis’ is the Greek word for testicle).
 True specialists are resurrection plants that completely dry out but, become green and active within days of rain. Examples are lichens (OK not plants) and Borya species “Pincushion plants’ on granite rocks (see Borya sphaerocephala on left).

​Many other plants partially shrivel up and change colour to ultraviolet resistant purple, red, and yellow, but remain alive in most seasons. However it takes days for them to recover after rain,  and plants will die in severe droughts.
The compact bush tucker plant Kickbush (Astroloma acervatum) is a common example

​Allocasuarinas (sheoaks and tammars) also markedly change colour as shown in the Dwarf Tammar (Allocasuarina humilis) images from near the Claypit. I noticed that there were colour differences within the plant where some branches were more water stressed than others.
Random comment – why do taxonomists use the Latin word humilis for smaller?
As a person of moderate stature, I regard this as heightist bias, and certainly feel no humility towards my larger brethren (poor souls).

​This interesting extract from a book edited by Professor Hans Lambers is a great read for those wishing to understand more about drought tolerance of our native plants.
 Have you ever wondered why Australia has no cacti and few succulents compared to other countries?
Succulent plants rely on salts in their cells to retain large amounts of water. Their evolution has not been favoured on most of our soils which have formed on very leached and weathered materials, except in saline basins where one finds salt tolerant succulents like Bluebush, Pigface, and Samphire.

Greetings fellow Foxies,

I found these plants on an unusual patch of yellow sand in Dryandra Woodland Candy Block that has Drummond’s Mallee and a large number of shrubs. In August I noted a low compact plant with lovely foliage that I called “carrot plant” while waiting for it to flower. Flowers in late October revealed it to be an uncommon species, Petrophile circinata. Circinate means curled around itself, presumably referring to the whorled leaf arrangement. Images below show the plant and flower.
As this species was coming into flower I noticed that there were a few very similar plants that had beautiful hairy red growth appearing on what I thought were dead flower stalks.
Gadzooks! The local experts were confounded until the growth expanded into the flower of slightly later flowering Isopogon villosus (villous means hairy with long soft hairs). The flowers emerge from thickened scaly clumps of old growth.
To my uneducated eye, vegetative growth of both species is similar, but Petrophile circinata leaves are a slightly darker green and leaf petioles have a distinctive linear fold in the petiole stem.
I usually have no problem distinguishing Isopogons (smooth fruiting nut) from Petrophiles (scaly nut), but these squat species are a real challenge. After a fair bit of excavation in the prickly growth I eventually found a rather confusing nut on the stem below the flowering clump.
The slideshow below follows both species as they flower.

Greetings fellow Foxies,
The peak of the flowering season has past and the drive-snap crowd has departed, but for observant nature lover there is beauty in post-flowering new plant growth. Proteaceae are particularly intriguing with a myriad of shapes and colours and woolly or hairy growth. These plants are superbly adapted to thrive in the lateritic soils that they create.
I am so lucky to be able to observe the annual cycle of life- death- rebirth of the plants and animals in Foxes Lair. It provides a reality check in the increasingly chaotic outside world.

Despite profuse flower numbers, proteaceae produce relatively few viable seeds, so another way to tell the difference is flower position. Hakea flowers emerge from the junction where the leaf joins the stem (the axil), whereas grevillea flower clusters are generally at the end of the shoot. Flowers range from being insignificant (see Hakea incrassata below) to stunningly beautiful.
In June flowering Honeybush (Hakea lissocarpa) plants (below) are dotted throughout the gravel areas. Most are white with the occasional pink variant. Bees love them.