Hairy flowers!
I love hairy flowers! We've seen a
few before but they've always been stink-pots who attract carrion-eating beetles and flies to do their pollinating. In that case, the hair helps to convince the hapless scavengers that they're visiting a fresh lump of steak. Extra rare. Slightly mouldy around the edges.
Beard Heaths are different. They attract good, ol' bees!
But they're so incredibly tiny...
That they get utterly dwarfed by their visitors.
There are more than 150 species of Beard Heath, all belonging to the
Leucopogon genus. Most of them are found in Australia, others live in New Zealand and various Pacific islands.
Most are white...
Some are pink...
All are hairy!
The rest of the plant is usually a shrub or small tree, often with long, pointy leaves. Sometimes the flowers are rather sparse...
Other times there's
loads of them...
And they're hairy!
The hairy flowers are really the star of the show, if you ask me.
Not for the first time, either.
6 comments:
how very pretty!
Thy sure are!
Amazing! Hoya carnosa still my favorite hairy flower though.
That Hoya carnosa looks like marzipan cake decorations, haha!
Oh your show and tell are amazing. I caught you over at Texas pad.
So came in to see your photos. Interesting to say the least.
Thank you!
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