Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus exaltatus) 🌱 Gardening Australia S36E01

Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus exaltatus) 🌱 Gardening Australia S36E01

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.

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.

The Healing Power of Nature’s Remedies

In the early hours of yesterday morning my youngest boy awoke me. He was burning up with a fever and sounded a little congested. I did what I always do in these situations and by 2pm the same day he was bouncing on the trampoline and laughing, having burned off whatever was afflicting him. My choice of remedies for this situation are the amazing Mulla Mulla Bush Flower Essence (applied regularly…

Plants... plants plants plants. I'm probably going to regret this. In fact, I'm sure I'm going to regret it, since I've got at least 100 species of plant, most of them found only here in the SW of Western Australia, waiting to go into the queue, and gods-know how many more I've yet to ID. One of them has dark purple flowers centimeters across, and I passed it around the WA Naturalists Club, and even they had no idea what it was.

And of course, my woeful neglect of botany since University has not helped. Ah well. Let's take a stab at plants for a while, then go back to more beetles.

Ptilotus are mostly perennial herbs and shrubs native to drier areas of mainland Australia (although one grows in Tasmania, and one on Flores and Timor). Despite the rather grass-like flowerheads, they're actually Amaranths. Common names include Mulla Mulla, Pussy Tails and Lambs Tails. They're quite good native ornamentals.