Drhoz
@drhoz.bsky.social
180 followers 170 following 1.4K posts
Australian Insect Fanatic (and BritSF fan and Furry)
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
drhoz.bsky.social
Found in the drier parts of all mainland states, in a variety of habitats, and surprisingly tolerant of high-phosphorus soils. Far more Australian plants suffer from phosphorus toxicity under such conditions.

GSB2024 Wongan Hills - Christmas Rock
drhoz.bsky.social
drhoz.tumblr.com/post/7972490... #3205 - Ptilotus exaltatus - Pink Mulla Mulla

Another of the Ptilotus species around Wongan Hills, although this one is better known for having much more exuburant flower heads - they’re practically stunted, here. Grown as a drought-tolerant ornamental.
#3205 - Ptilotus exaltatus - Pink Mulla Mulla
Another of the Ptilotus species around Wongan Hills, although this one is better known for having much more exuburant flower heads - they're practically stunted, here. Grown as a drought-tolerant...
drhoz.tumblr.com
drhoz.bsky.social
In this case it was growing in laterite soil. Unlike other better-known Ptilotus, this one stays close to the ground.

GSB2024 Wongan Hills - Rogers Reserve
drhoz.bsky.social
Another Australian amaranth, found across swathes of the southern states, including Tasmania. Widespread and locally common in drier, semi-fertile plains country, confined to loamy soils of swales and depressions in dune-mallee areas.
drhoz.bsky.social
Highly sought after by Indigenous Australians, early European colonisers, and livestock. One of the favorite foods of emu, who can easily transport the seeds hundreds of kilometers. Children would also use the fruit for pink facepaint.

GSB2024 Wongan Hills - various locations
drhoz.bsky.social
Widespread in all the arid and semi-arid parts of Australia, but preferring saline soils in the shade of small trees. Also naturalised in New Caledonia.
drhoz.bsky.social
drhoz.tumblr.com/post/7972418... #3203 - Enchylaena tomentosa - Barrier Saltbush

AKA Ruby Saltbush.

Enchylaena means ‘fleshy cloak’ referring to the way the outer parts of the flower ripen into the red & orange fruit. 'tomentosa’ is Latin for the dense covering of short hair on the leaves.
#3203 - Enchylaena tomentosa - Barrier Saltbush
AKA Ruby Saltbush. The generic epithet means 'fleshy cloak' referring to the way the outer parts of the flower ripen to form the red and orange fruit. 'tomentosa' is botanical Latin for the dense...
drhoz.tumblr.com
drhoz.bsky.social
There are almost 60 species of Bluebush in Australia, all endemic, and range from herbaceous to woody perennials to small shrubs.

GSB2024 Wongan Hills - Lake Ninan.
drhoz.bsky.social
An Amaranth native to the drier parts of the Australian mainland, but much more common in Western Australia than elsewhere. Growing in sand, clay, and loam, but only where the ground is saline.
drhoz.bsky.social
Oddly enough the genus Maireana was first delineated in 1840 by the same botanist, but this species didn’t get moved into it until 1975. Named to honour Joseph François Maire (1780–1867), an amateur botanist who befriended Moquin-Tandon during the author’s first visit to Paris in 1834.
drhoz.bsky.social
Described in 1849 by French naturalist Alfred Moquin-Tandon as Echinopsilon carnosus. ‘carnosus’ means 'fleshy’ and while the plant has a number of adaptations against water loss, most notably the wool, other Bluebushes are much more succulent.
drhoz.bsky.social
Unsurprisingly, most of the plants surviving around the lake are halophytes, equipped to survive those sorts of conditions.

Widespread along the southern parts of Australia, thriving in estuaries, swamps, and seasonally waterlogged saline depressions.

GSB2024, Wongan Hills - Lake Ninan
drhoz.bsky.social
Groundwater out there is highly saline, and with the trees removed it’s come closer and closer to the surface, resulting in extensive salt scald in once-productive paddocks, and Lake Ninan going from freshwater to six times saltier than the ocean.
drhoz.bsky.social
drhoz.tumblr.com/post/7972345... #3201 - Salicornia blackiana - Thick-head Glasswort

AKA Sarcocornia blackiana.

Salinity is a serious problem in the Western Wheatbelt, and it’s the direct result of the near-total removal of the native vegetation and trees changing the hydrology.
drhoz.bsky.social
Unlike the sandfig previously, this one is actually native to the Mediterranean region, and has become an invasive weed in South Africa, Australia, the SW US and Mexico, and other places with similar climates.

GSB2024 WonganHilsls - various locations.
drhoz.bsky.social
The fruit and leaves are edible, both as as a snack and for their flavour, but is apparently toxic to live stock, probably because they eat much more of it.

GSB2024 Wongan Hills - Lake Ninan
drhoz.bsky.social
An Ice Plant native to South Africa, that unfortunately finds the climate and appalling soils of the Western Wheatbelt entirely to its liking.
drhoz.bsky.social
He based the diagnosis on a herbarium sheet that was later discovered to contain parts belonging to plants in different genera, and without designating a holotype. To say that this caused later headaches in an understatement.
drhoz.bsky.social
drhoz.tumblr.com/post/7972273... #3199 - Cleretum papulosum - Salad Sandfig

The genus Cleretum was established by English succulent expert Nicholas Edward Brown in 1925.
drhoz.bsky.social
McGFrath Flats was one of the sites I discussed on my recent talk about Fossil Insects, and that I'll probably be doing again for the WA Naturalists Club main branch
drhoz.bsky.social
The seeds also germinate readily after fire. In Australia it’s number six in the list of economically costly weeds, from its effect on crop yields.

GSB2024, Wongan Hills - Lake Ninan
drhoz.bsky.social
Native to the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, but now an invasive weed in deserts and drier areas across much of the world. Not only do the seeds become sticky after rain, the entire plant can break off at the base and blow around as a tumbleweed.