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silviaalexandra.bsky.social
@silviaalexandra.bsky.social
210 followers 610 following 370 posts
History, mysteries, swamp goth, truth telling, I WILL post pictures of an insect I saw. I work in conservation, heritage, natural history, museums, and libraries. Writing from Wonnarua Country.
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silviaalexandra.bsky.social
14 degrees at night to 39 in the day is completely bizarre. A pleasant spring time for all.
A screenshot of the upcoming weather from the BOM weather app, showing next Wednesday's minimum temperature of 14 degrees Celsius to 39 degrees Celsius, 90% chance of rain. At the bottom of the screen is Thursday's min/max of 16 degrees Celsius and 26 degrees Celsius
October 18, 2025 at 1:49 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
21. Prostanthera cuneata, another first flower from a newly planted plant
Prostanthera cuneata with its glossy bubbly dark green leaves floating blurrily in the background. The flower appears out of the green blur, white and bell like with flappy petal ends.
October 8, 2025 at 9:21 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
20. Kangaroo paws. I wasn't super keen because these are W.A. natives and I'm just annoyed at how many cool flowers W.A. has. But they were the perfect replacement for the structural Agapanthus that were apparently holding up the whole structure of the pool pavers. The Honeyeaters love the flowers
A pure red stalk with radiating stalks that are velvety furry. The background is a muted grey metal fence The giant red kangaroo paws blooming wildly and tall-y. The leaves are tall grassy and strappy.
October 8, 2025 at 9:08 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
19. Billardiera cymosa - a South Australian Apple-Berry. The more local Billardiera is trailing along the bottom of this plant and isn't quite ready to flower just yet.
In the centre of the photo are two small flowers, pale purplish white (but in reality they look to me like a pale purple-blue). They're surrounded by the long narrow ovoid leaf of the plant. The flowers sit atop a white picket stake. The top of the Sweet Apple-Berry plant which has climbed up a metal trellis and created a big crown of green leaves and a crown of purple pink flowers
October 8, 2025 at 9:00 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
Today's big reveal is that the Pigface that never bloomed once in THREE YEARS has popped a flower out. Anyway I'm pretty sure this is pesky Angled Pigface so it may be off for the mulch anyway. Would love an expert to chime in, hello #botanists? #plantID?
The violently pink narrow petals of a Pigface flower with some creamy yellow stamens squeezing through. The flower is a little beat up. In the background the juicy leaves of the plant. Zooming out, the Carpobrotus flower is seen in a sea of green beefy leaves
October 8, 2025 at 8:32 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
17. Bauera rubioides - the dog rose.
Looking into the heart of the Bauera rubioides is indeed like looking into a mini rose. Tiny bright pink flower petals that are soft and crinkly. They hang down shyly but I've caught it here rudely from below. The stamens are a fuzzy yellow the leaves are tiny, narrow, pointed and quite dark green Dogrose flower, side view. The petal veins are a pale white compared to the shocking pink petal. The edge of the petals are ruffled like a soft rose.
October 8, 2025 at 8:18 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
16. Lambertia formosa (Mountain Devil), only planted a couple of months ago, but already flowering?! I'm ok with that.
Looking directly into the flower head of the Mountain Devil flower, you can see lots of smaller little flowers, perhaps one of those flowers that are mostly sepals and the flower is the tiny bit? Something for me to look into. The middle of the flower is a candy red, with the sepals etc lightening and greening as they spread outwards. The leaves are narrow and end in a definite spike a DEFINITE spike these plants are unforgivingly sharp all over Same flower side on. The whole flower is an upturned bell shape surrounded by radiating taller green and yellow petals. The little flowers inside end in little purplish red curls. The flower is centered in the photograph, the background is the blurred side of my house and garden bed blurred enough to make it all a little anonymous ya know
October 8, 2025 at 8:11 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
So many good birds, but my heart is always in the swamp so I've put my love and my vote behind the Australasian Bittern
In the centre of the image is the Australasian Bittern, a bird that is beautiful if you like a sort of dinosaur muppet type of bird, which I do. The feathers are brown, tan, and white patterned. In this snap the bittern is shown with its long snakey neck completely retracted into its body, giving it a kiwi-like appearance. The beak is pointed. The legs are non-webbed water bird type, long and ending in sharp curved talons. The legs are a pale blue-green. The best part of the Bittern (hard to choose) is often its intense staring eye. The Bittern is caught mid-journey walking over tall grass and sticks.
October 6, 2025 at 10:40 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
Could you start a gripe page called the Fucking Priors? I need somewhere to vent about the people who installed built-ins by cutting into and removing sections of timber that are now 1. Made of regionally extinct trees 2. Only commercially available at 2/3rds the size
Photo shows the corner floor of the bedroom. The floor is wood, the skirting board is white, the wall is a dismal brown. Several crimes are visible: the missing skirting board is a 300mm length that thus removed exposes the inside of the house, I can see the ground from the bedroom now, a room with a view. To the right another crime -- a 15mm section of the skirting board has been cut out every 300mm. The panel with the electrical plug (which used to live in the wardrobe) revealed both the ancient wiring of the house AND historic termite damage. The photo also features the bottom half of a ladder and my partner's feet. Out of shot, he is removing panels from the built-ins that have been nailed directly into the lathe and plaster walls.
October 5, 2025 at 7:33 PM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
15. Australian violets - Viola hederacea - are starting to pop their little heads up
One small purple and white flower pops up above a sea of circular leaves. The flower is white and purple. Another flower - same species but appearing slightly whiter in the flower
September 14, 2025 at 9:15 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
14. Grevillea no. 3 is a special and very endemic one - Grevillea montana. Currently this plant is about 10cm wide and tall but has been blooming for months
Grevillea montant produces red, dark red, and green flowers - single flowers are produced at the end of the stalk. Close up of the flower showing its many different coloured parts
September 14, 2025 at 9:12 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
13. Grevillea no.2 is the pink spider flower. An important inclusion as these guys are a pretty common sight around here
The multi-headed grevillea flower of Grevillea sericea, pink spider flower. This one is cluster-shaped. The leaves are thin and pointed. The photo has the flower in the centre, in the background is my great shame, the soil bare and un-mulched. I'm working on it!
September 14, 2025 at 9:08 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
12. Is a Grevillea, this time another hybrid - the Bronze Rambler. Planted here to cover a weird corner spot, with bonus sweet flowers now blooming
The toothbrush- shaped flower of the Bronze Rambler. The flowers display the usual hook-like cluster of flowers that define Grevilleas. The leaves are a typical acanthus shape. A general view of the plant which is currently tiny but still flowering
September 14, 2025 at 9:02 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
11. My Hardenbergia didn't do great this year. I think it has fallen to some sort of wood grub and it's been a shocking year for violent storms (again). I've probably lost my wattle also. I'll be cutting both back quite severely in a last-ditch effort to save both.
Hardenbergia flower sprig sprouting directly from a snaking branch. Missing are the usual lush green leaves though some are visible to the left. The flowers are pea-like and purple (looking pink in the photo).
September 14, 2025 at 8:56 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
10. Australian geranium, P. australe is starting to bloom but honestly what I love best is seeding time, the seeds are very fuzzy and corkscrew shaped just a delight. Also my geraniums have self-seeded this year!
A focused photo on Pelargonium australe in bloom, a head of three flowers clustered together. The flowers are a gentle pink. In the background the leaves are big and look similar to European geranium
September 14, 2025 at 8:47 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
9. Brachyscome doing well in the sea of Microlaena weeping grass I planted as a lawn. This one is multifida, with its fuzzy little leaves
The daisy-like Brachyscome flower surrounded by the lime green lawn I planted around it. The flower has thin purple petals and a small yellow centre. This pic shows more of the Microlaena lawn and a bit more of the Brachyscome multifida leaves which are made up of small delicate thin leaves leaves, giving it a fuzzy appearance
September 14, 2025 at 3:05 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
8. Bluebells! AKA Wahlenbergia. This one is W. communis. The region is known for its bluebell fields, or rather used to be. This is the first flower from the mini tubestocks I planted - I'm hoping it spreads just about everywhere. Also looking for W. stricta to plant in.
From a sea of strappy green leaves and mulch in the background pops out a delicate purple/blue flower. There are five petals oval with pointed tips.
September 14, 2025 at 2:25 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
7. A hybrid emu bush, I've long lost the little label. While not super keen on hybrids in the garden, this was a special request from the other half, so I allowed it.
The flowers of this Eremophilia hybrid have the familiar shape of the emu bush flower with a tubular shape ending in open flowers and upright stamens. They remind me of the shape of salvias. This flower is white with fuschia spots. A more complete image of the bush showing the side view of the flowers and curling leaves. The bush is now officially taller than I am, ~1.8m
September 14, 2025 at 2:18 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
6. Dianella - not sure which. It's been with me two years and only started flowering! Excited for the berries.
The flower of a Dianella grass plant with the strappy leaves in the background. The.flowers are small, purple-white with large yellow stamens. A different view - showing the flowers clustering on the flower stalk. More green strappy leaves in the background
September 14, 2025 at 2:11 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
5a. As promised a photograph of Corinidium elatum blooming en masse. Tiger the greyhound wished to know what I was doing then got distracted by the neighbour's dog. The bricks at the base of the flower were to deter Maisie(RIP)'s incessant digging up of the roots. Not had the heart to move them.
My sunny side everlasting growing and blooming en masse. The white flowers all bloom at the top of the plant with the elongated leaves visible on the bottom. The right side of the bush is mysteriously shadowed. The reason for the shadow in the previous image is revealed. The photography of the everlasting bush was interrupted by resident greyhound Tiger. His large soft stripey head is visible, but blurred on the right hand side of the of the photograph. Only a few white flowers are visible behind his blurred head. In this photo I have relented. The bush is visible with massed white flowers to the right of the photograph, only a little covered by Tiger's long fawn coloured and striped torso. His head is not visible. In the background you can see the edge of my wood-panelled house and a white picket fence.
September 14, 2025 at 2:06 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
5.Corinidium elatum - an everlasting

I'll have to get a photo of these blooming as a big cluster
An everlasting is a paper daisy, this one is white with several rings of papery pointed petals around a tense yellow middle. Behind the flower you can see the deep green elongated leaves. Touching these is an odd but pleasant experience.
September 13, 2025 at 7:38 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
4. Prostanthera incisa - native thyme.

It is a shame you can't smell it through the photo. Drop me an address in chat and I can send you a little mesh baggie of the dried stuff! Dried is not the same as getting a cloud of the scent on a wet day as you walk past, however
Close up of the soft bell-shaped flowers of Prostanthera incisa, the flowers are a purplish pink, as opposed to a pinkish purple The full bush of P. incisa - the leaves are small and lush and green. The bush is now taller than me after two years of growth.
September 13, 2025 at 7:33 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
3. Patersonia occidentalis

Yeah there's just the WA purple flag for sale these days, I'd have preferred a more local one but there ya go 🌱 plants gotta be planted
Purple flag flower in bloom, three purple petals with a fuzzy green background
September 13, 2025 at 3:59 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
2. Australian indigo

Also good lord I don't have the correct botanical terminology, calling me a novice doesn't even cover it
Australian indigo, a messy bush full of small vibrant pink pea flowers and small oval leaves
September 13, 2025 at 3:10 AM
silviaalexandra.bsky.social
What's blooming in my garden this week, a thread 🌱 in which I'm jumping between the scientific and common names of things because I'm just having a nice lunch break from garden labour on the first free sunny weekend in weeks

1. Hibbertia scandens
Hibbertia scandens
September 13, 2025 at 3:07 AM