I did not know that eucalyptus had flowers! Learned something new today
Mike, I spent most of my life dealing with E.ficifolia et.al. and then what do they do? They completely restructure the genus on me! Bloody Corymbia my eye! They only did it to spite me!
When I was in second year Botany, we had to collect fifty eucalyptus specimens, identify and present them as a herbarium collection and make labelled diagrams of them showing all the diagnostic features used to identify them. It was great fun and not as difficult as it might sound. There are over five hundred species in Australia and many of them occur within coo-ee of where I live. The sad part is that about ten years ago we were tidying up the shed where my collection was stored. Ants had gotten into it and were nesting between the leaves on which my specimens were attached. I had to burn it!!! Broke my heart!
Getting back to eucalypts, though, the Mottlecah (E.macrocarpa and if it's now Corymbia I don't care! Lalalalalaal - not listening!) has the largest and sexiest of the flowers in the genus. I've tried many times to grow one, but the humidity gets them every time. They're a dry-country plant. Have you seen them over in SW WA???
Check out May Gibbs' "Snugglepot and Cuddlepie"I did not know that eucalyptus had flowers! Learned something new today
Mike, you did your degree at UNE, did you not? Biogeography? Did you have Prof. Jeremy Smith???
And - um - I thought Bourke Parrots were still Neophemas! Clearly, I have to be getting a new Field Guide. I'm still using my Slater's from 1976. LOL! What do you recommend as a good Field Guide for birds? I bought a Simpson & Day, but I really prefer Slater's illustrations. I also bought a Pizzey, but didn't like the layout. What do you use???
Wow! Small world! Jeremy was one of my favourite teachers - he had the happy knack of knitting all the disciplines together so they all made great sense. I was lucky enough to go on a field expedition to Dorrigo National Park with Jeremy and Prof Milburn, the new Head of Botany. While we were there, Jeremy found an unusual ground orchid from the genus Cryptostylis. It turned out to be a brand new species and he hoped to have it called 'milburnii' in honour of Prof. I've never found such a species listed, so he can't have been successful.
Years later, the Bird Observers' Group I belonged to planned a trip to Heard Island under Jeremy's auspices to see the Royal Albatross and various petrels and storm petrels. Sadly, I was teaching school at the time and couldn't get the time off. I'll always regret missing that trip! Later on, though, I did get to visit Cabbage Tree Island and do some banding of the endangered Gould's Petrels that live there. One of our members stuck his hand down a burrow and pulled out a Fairy Penguin! On his next foray into the same burrow, he pulled out a Tiger Snake! On the third foray, he pulled out a petrel chick in perfectly OK condition!
LOL! You'd be well-advised to take up watching the feathery kind. I can recommend it as a fabulous hobby. Oh, and there's nothing wrong with being dorky. Some of my best friends are dorks!
I know that pine forest! I've crawled over most of it wielding a square quadrat and counting soil insects. Well, maybe not most of it, but a fair whack of it. LOL! Good on you for taking your daughter - I used to take my Matt everywhere I went too, when he was little. When we lived in Armidale, Jeremy's daughter was in Matt's class at school. His wife was one of the most stunningly beautiful women I've ever seen and their little girl was clearly going to be just as stunning as her Mum. And very, very bright.
Did you ever make it out to Ebor? They had the most unique pub I've ever visited. It was made entirely of corrugated iron and was open 24/7. Everyone was welcome and the night I was there we had a terrific bush dance with what seemed like the entire population of Ebor dancing to a violin, a guitar and a bloke playing the spoons. Little kids and dogs shared the dance floor and a marvellous time was had by all, way into the night/morning. I was told this was a normal Saturday night for Ebor Pub and always meant to go back for another visit. I doubt it's quite the same these days, though.
Yeah, some of our offshore islands can be pretty hairy, eh? Even Cabbage Tree (which is only a couple of hours outside Port Stephens) was touch and go to land on. It has no beach, only a couple of rocky, shingle-covered slopes so you have to virtually leap for your life from your boat to the rocks. I can't imagine how it would be to take part in an expedition where someone was killed! What on earth would you do? Fancy having to decide what to do about people's bodies and whether or not it was safe to proceed?
Getting back to Jeremy and his ilk, there were so very many fascinating people at UNE back then. I count myself lucky to have been there at a time when our Zoo and Botany departments rivalled even Holy Sydney's. In fact, I'd re-live those years several times over if I could. What fun they were!