Thanks to everyone who welcomed Claire yesterday -- I know she appreciates it. We may or may not get another entry from her before I'm away again starting tomorrow, but once we reach mid-October, you'll be seeing a lot more of her writing (this is also when I plan to move the site to the new server).
Today's photograph is courtesy once again of foliosus@flickr, aka Brent Miller of Portland, Oregon. It looks like Brent took a trip recently to Southern Australia, as this image was taken south of Adelaide (original image via the BPotD Flickr Pool. Thank you!
Species of Hakea have twice previously been featured on BPotD: Hakea epiglottis (grown here at UBC) and the brilliant Hakea laurina. Hakea cinerea, or the ashy hakea (or ashy-leaved), is native to Australia, like all of the 150 or so species in the genus. Specifically, it is endemic to Western Australia (the plant featured in the photograph is cultivated in a reserve), where it generally grows within 70km of parts of the southern coastline. A shrub that grows to 2.5m (8ft), it is typically found in swamps, heathland or Mallee woodland, in gravelly or sandy soils.
The specific epithet cinerea means "ash-coloured", a reference to the leaves. Photographs of these are available via the Esperance Wildflowers weblog: Hakea cinerea. Additional photographs of the flowers are available via the Electronic Flora of South Australia: Hakea cinerea.
Welcome Claire and congratulations for the opportunity to work with Daniel.
fine picture i always enjoy meeting plants and flowers trees etc
from aussie land tis spring there and tulips in bloom
as i was useing my needle[ yarn needle ]to sew up a hat i had knitted
what does it remind me of - and i thought of the picture above and how
the flowers look like my needle cushion when full bonjour
i thank thee