#gsb2024

AKA rock grevillea or poker grevillea.

There are three subspecies, all endemic to the semi-arid SW. Two grow near granite, and the other in heaths, sandplains and scrubland. It may reach 4m in height.

Acuminata is latin for 'tapered to a point'

A very common annual paper daisy in the SW corner of Australia, but sparse in the drier parts of other states. It usually grows in open, hot environments with deep sandy red soils or shallow stony soils (sandstone and granite) amongst mallee and mulgoa woodlands. But also in saline depressions, sand, loam, gravel, litter, laterite, sand dunes, plains, and clay soils. Since Wongan has all of those, it's hardly surprising we found the plant growing everywhere.

Photos by @gemfyre

A shrub or climber in the cheesewood family, endemic to the SW of Australia, where it grows in a wide range of soils and bears these red flowers in sets of three to six.

Originally native to Europe, Western Asia, and North Africa, but introduced to many other parts of the world as a cover crop, nitrogen fixer, and animal fodder, where it has predictably become a weed.

Photo by Loxley Febec on iNat - the photos we took weren't very sharp, but clearly showed the very odd structure of the plant.

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. 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.

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.

There are almost 60 species of Bluebush in Australia, all endemic, and range from herbaceous to woody perennials to small shrubs.

A genus of Eupelmid parasitoids first described from Australia, but also found in Asia and Africa. DNA barcoding has been quite useful in matching the females to males.

In 2022, a revision of the family moved some genera to the families Metapelmatidae and Neanastatidae (which can't have been easy given home often Tineobius species have been described as Metapelma over the years), leaving 39 genera in Eupelmidae.

Eupelmids are most commonly parasites of beetle larva, but hosts include spiders, insect eggs, and other parasitoid wasps.

"Laxative plant with ribbed fruit and narrow leaflets" First formally described in 1859 by Ferdinand von Mueller as Cassia pleurocarpa.

AKA Chocolate Bush, from the smell of the flowers. The species is found in all arid parts of Australia, but the angustifolia variety is most widespread in WA, and is also found in temperate and semi-arid areas. Most common in red stony soils.

Wongan Hills, site of the 2024 Great South Bioblitz weekend trip I organised, certainly counts.

A species of Tumbling Flower Beetle, usually seen on flowers, and often on Verticordia. If disturbed they tumble off the flower and play dead. However, their attempts to take off and fly can be pretty acrobatic, too. Another common name for the family in Pintail Beetles - note the pointy butt.

Endemic to the WA Wheatbelt, although these days usually only in the reserves where the native plants flower in staggering profusion in spring.