The displays of myrtaceae and other wildflowers in WA is truly amazing this year. PIC: North Queensland Plants
The superlatives just keep on coming as Western Australia’s remarkable wildflower season continues to astound and delight grey nomads and other visitors.
The spectacular floral roadshow has now reached the state’s south coast, where a long wet winter has created fields of myrtaceae, banksia, hakea, smokebush and more native orchids than have been seen in years.
The Australian newspaper reports that Spring came late to the southwest with carpets of colour have only begun to appear in the past week.
Esperance, which gets an average 566mm of rain in the first nine months of each year, has so far seen 641mm, with wildflowers popping up on the sides of roads, in town … and at the beach.
Teenager Sarah Butler told the Australian she found a field of Phymatocarpus maxwellii at a reserve known as Helms Arboretum on the outskirts of Esperance, one of several bush lots managed by the Department of Parks and Wildlife.
“It’s a very special season due to the rain,” Sylvia Mills, from Luxury Outback Tours, told the Australian. “The wildflowers are superb.”
About 60% of the 12,000 species of wildflowers found in Western Australia do not grow anywhere else. The season begins in the state in the far north Pilbara in June, and finishes on the south coast in November.
This year we have come down the west coast and in August near the little town of Pindar (about 100 km inland from Geraldton) we saw Wreath flowers. I had never heard of them before but they just another one of the vast number of different wildflowers that Western Australia has to offer.
We have just finished touring the Perth, Fremantle, Margaret River, Albany and Esperance area and were totally overwhelmed with the wildflowers. I think we must’ve taken a thousand photos!
We have spent the whole winter in the Gascoyne, Wheatbelt and now the Lower south west. The everlastings, wreath flowers and orchids are so prolific and far better than when we were here 5 years ago. We are now looking forward to seeing the Stirling ranges and the Esperance area.