Australia So Much to See

Euryomyrtus leptospermoides 2001 (formerly Baeckea leptospermoides)

Five petalled blossoms, white with pink tinges, a dark red centre, and up to 23 stamens of varying lengths with the five longest each being central to each of the petals.  Foliage consists of thick oval leaves that have darker green speckles on them, with leaves opposite and a further pair of leaves at right angles alternating along the stems.   

August

Merredin, Wheatbelt region, Western Australia, and found through the central Wheatbelt from Wialki to Lake King, and into the adjacent western edge of the Goldfields. 

Five petalled pastel pink blossoms with a dark red centre.  Ten stamens. Foliage consists of tiny thick concave oval leaves that have darker green speckles on them held upward towards the stem, with leaves opposite and a further pair of leaves at right angles alternating all the way up the stems.  

August

Exocarpos aphyllus, Leafless Ballart, Leafless Cherry, Chuk, Chiuk, Dtulya

A hemiparasitic (that is partially parasitic, being able to produce its own chlorophyll) leafless shrub with strongly ribbed thick and stiff green branching stems.  Shrubs can reach up to five metres in height.  Flowers are not open in these photos. Flowers are in clusters of very tiny six petalled yellow star-shaped flowers. The red cherry-like part is not really the fruit, but a thickening of the flower stem which develops at the seed ripens, but it is edible and favoured by birds which swallow the seed as well, thus aiding distribution and germination.  The seed sits above this red band, so appears to be outside the fruit. 

August, with fruit and buds but no open flowers seen.