Wordless Wednesday ... Silk Cotton Tree

Bombax ceiba leiocarpum, our native Silk Cotton Tree

for Wordless Wednesday

and Today's Flowers

Our First Day of Spring Downunder ... and Our National Wattle Day!

Tomorrow ... September 1st ... is the first day of Spring downunder ... and on this day every year we celebrate National Wattle Day!!

Wattles ... Acacias of course being their botanic name ... have a very special place in the heart of all Aussies.

Let misers hoard and hide their gold;
Here there is treasure-trove untold,
In yellow blossom, mass on mass
Spread out for wayfarers who pass
With hearts to feel, and eyes to see
How lovely is the wattle tree.

One of our native wattles (seen on the left) - Acacia pycnantha or the Golden Wattle - is our national floral emblem  ... and, of course, our national colours ... green and gold ... were inspired by the Acacia.

Towards illimitable skies
From the earth the trees arise:
Givers of Joy, their gold and green
Against the blue of Heaven is seen.
A symbol of man's destiny
Is the blossoming the wattle tree.

(Selected verses from Dora Wilcox's 'The Wattle Tree')




Acacias welcome in the Spring in many parts of Australia ... although there are many species that bloom at other times of the year.  There's over 1000 different types of Acacias ... Australia has around two-thirds of the entire world's species.  There are some that are metre-high shrubs ... and then others that are trees reaching to 15 metres tall!!

I am in no way an expert in Acacias, despite being an Aussie, as so many just look identical to me and I find it hard to tell them apart. But putting my lack of expert knowledge aside, I shall attempt to share some of the Acacias that surround me here ... there are a couple of varieties out in the bushland around my home and a number of these have sprung up on my property.  I thought I'd join in Noel's Hot, Loud and Proud meme and show some of these magnificent Acacias with you ... the names are just educated guesses!  (Please correct me if you think I'm wrong ... my shoulders are broad!)

An interesting fact about the flowers of Acacias is that there are two types - rod-shaped and ball-shaped.  There are examples of both of these flowers on the Acacias that grow here.

Here's the first Acacia that's a common sight out in the bushland. 

I think it's Acacia simsii, commonly called Sim's Wattle.

It has ball-shaped flowers.

It has seed pods that look like this ... pods alternately raised and depressed over the seeds inside.

There is also this beautiful Acacia that has bright, golden yellow rod-shaped flowers. 

This could be Acacia auriculiformis ... the Northern Black or Ear Pod Wattle.

The common name Ear Pod Wattle can be attributed to the look and shape of the seed pods.

Then finally, there is this wonderful Acacia with its grey-green foliage and creamy lemon flower spikes. 

I think this one is Acacia holosericea, commonly called Silver Leaf Wattle.

This Acacia has the most remarkable heavily curled and twisted seed pods.

These pods eventually turn brown and will stay on the tree long after the seeds have been dispersed.

As I mentioned earlier, not all Acacias bloom in Spring ... and mine don't!!!  There are no gorgeous wattle flowers out in the bush or on my property right now ... all these varieties bloomed back in Autumn.  There are seed pods on both the Ear Pod and Silver Leaf Wattles ... but that is it.  So to end this National Wattle Day post, here's a few more photos taken earlier this year.  Enjoy the green and gold on this first day of Spring.

Two of my favourite local native north Australian winter flowering trees.

As it's mid-Winter downunder, I thought I would share two great native northern Oz trees that flower at this time of the year.

In Australia there are two true native Kapoks. There is our local species and the one which is very common in Kakadu National Park, called Cochlospermum fraseri, which looks almost identical except for the leaf shape.

Every winter I am always impressed by the brilliant splashes of golden yellow which our local native Kapok Tree gives to the otherwise drab hillsides around my place.  Cochlospermum gillivraei is  a common sight not only on the rocky slopes here, but also in the vine thicket gullies on the outskirts of my city and they're commonly used in footpath and park plantings in our suburbs.






Our native Kapok loses all its leaves before flowering, which makes the flowering more obvious. The large golden yellow flowers have these beautiful contrasting stamens in the centre.

The flowers themselves are edible and are supposedly quite pleasant, according to indigenous locals. The blooms have been compared to marshmallows!! Although more than 90% water, they are surprisingly high in Vitamin C! The tap root of young Kapok plants is also edible when roasted.


After the yellow flowers are pollinated, large, globular, green, papery fruit develop, which eventually turn brown and split along the seams to reveal two contrasting layers.  This fruit will then release numerous seeds covered by long hairs. The small black seeds are woven in a dense mat of fine silky hairs. This material is known as ‘kapok’.



Well that was the first great native winter bloomer ... now for another.

Meet our native Silk Cotton Tree with its flamboyant scarlet blooms.  This tree is also sometimes known as Red Kapok.  Bombax ceiba leiocarpum, is a type of native cotton tree that is found here in northern Australia. It grows along the northern rivers and streams in the bush and also in coastal vine thickets around the sand dunes near the coast.



It can also be found in many gardens as well as in our local parks and green areas.  I'm lucky enough to have a neighbour who has a magnificent old specimen outside their property.



This tree has a thorny trunk and after shedding its leaves in the dry season, large waxy bright red flowers emerge. These are around 10 cms across and they hang singly or in small clusters at the end of the branches. These flowers are fragrant and in days gone by, the blooms were collected once they had fallen and were used as table decoration.





The bombax fruit is a large, oblong woody capsule that splits when ripe. This allows the seeds to float out in their woolly coats.

The taproot is edible and is an example of Australian indigenous food.  Apparently, the fleshy roots of young Bombax trees can be roasted and eaten like carrots.

Hope you enjoyed this introduction to two of my favourite winter blooming native trees. They provide quite spectacular colour in the middle of our long ‘dry’ season.

My own native 'Bush Tucker' tree - Sterculia Quadrifida.

The definition of ‘bush tucker’ would be: any edible, native Australian flora and fauna that was present before European colonisation which was harvested or hunted in the bush by our country's original inhabitants ... the Aborigines.

I have a 'Bush Tucker' tree in my courtyard that is native to the eastern coastal strip from northern New South Wales to far north Queensland ... and up into Papua New Guinea.  Not only were the seeds used as food by the Aboriginal people, the bark was used to weave baskets. The inner bark of this tree was also important to them as a source of string, which was used for rope, fishing nets and fishing line. 

This tree is commonly called the 'Peanut Tree' - Sterculia quadrifida.  Not only is the 'Bush Tucker' aspect of this tree interesting, it is also one of our very rare native Winter-deciduous trees.

It grows to a height of 5 -10 metres and has a spreading canopy, dropping it's leaves during Winter and when flowering.  The leaves are dark green and broad egg-shaped or sometimes heart-shaped at the base.  Around my area of north Queensland the Peanut Tree can start to shed leaves in May ... which is the end of Autumn. Leaves will then begin to regrow after the tree has fruited ...  this is usually around August to September, which is the end of Winter into early Spring. 

Here it is in my courtyard garden ... first, when covered in leaves ... and next, when it's beginning to drop it's leaves:

The creamy-white, lemon-scented flowers of this tree are rather inconspicuous. They are borne in small clusters in the upper axils, and occur from November to January (Summer in Australia).

The most distinctive feature of this native tree is the fruit. 

The fruits are clusters of large, leathery, boat-shaped pods up to 8 cm long which, change from green to an eye-catching orangey-red at maturity. 

Stage 1 - Green pods:

Stage 2 - Changing to orangey-red:

At this stage it splits open to reveal black seeds about the size of a peanut. The seeds are edible and are supposed to taste like peanuts ... never tried them myself! ... but for those who do wish to try them, it's recommended that the seed coat or testa should be removed first.  Birds, on the other hand, enjoy them 'au natural'!

Popping open:

Seeds:

The edible seed is called ‘egng edndan’ in Uw Oykangand and Uw Olkola; ‘mayi pinta’ in Pakanh – which are the traditional languages of the Aboriginal people in central Cape York Peninsula. Their colloquial name for this tree is ‘Monkeynut Tree’.  

The pods stay open for quite some time – looking a bit like a flower and then they drop off, littering the pavers in the Courtyard Garden and making a bit of a mess!

This tree, despite being quite messy during the Autumn/early Winter, is a valuable shade tree during Summer ... when it provides lots of cover over the courtyard area ... and then during Winter, when it's deciduous, it allows lots of light onto the courtyard garden for the winter and spring flowering annuals. 

Tabebuia impetiginosa - the Dwarf Pink Trumpet Tree

One of the most spectacular trees that blooms during our tropical winter here is the Tabebuia impetiginosa ... previously known as Tabebuia ipe ... or what we commonly call the 'Dwarf Pink Trumpet Tree'.

Now don't be fooled ... even though it's known as a dwarf it can grow to 25 feet with a rather large canopy. It's a beautiful tree in many ways.  First, there's the light grey bark and smooth dark green leaves.

Then there are the 2-3 inch long lavender-pink flowers with yellow centres which appear in clusters in mid-Winter. 

There is such a distinct contrast between the pink of the petal lobes and the yellow throat when the flowers first open ... but then the throat tends to become pink with age. 

Just as these gorgeous blooms start appearing, the tree will start dropping it's leaves ... and then there's the sight of the bare branches completely covered in pretty frilly pink blooms with a carpet of pink on the ground.

The photo below shows my very tall Tabebuia impetiginosa just coming into bloom now ... with the contrasting Bauhinia ... another fabulous winter bloomer ... showing off it's stunning white flowers on almost completely leafless branches.  I love this sight as I drive into the property at this time of year.

The Dwarf Pink Trumpet Tree is just such a fabulous choice for a hot, dry climate as it is not only highly drought tolerant, loves full sun and will thrive in almost any type of soil ... it's also simply gorgeous.

African Tulip Tree - Spathodea Campanulata

This is the closest I come to seeing anything that resembles a tulip in my part of the world. 

I can hear you asking ... What has this tree got to do with tulips??  Well, it's the spectacular African Tulip tree that comes from tropical central and western Africa.  Growing up to 25 metres, it's a terrific choice as an evergreen shade tree for any tropical garden.  It is suited to warm coastal areas and is drought hardy.  Mine is surviving in very poor soil out in the full sun and in a corner of the garden that receives very little water.   It provides lots of great colour during our 'dry' season here.

This tree has a single trunk, a broad domed crown and displays leaves that are slightly hairy and shiny on the top.

The highlight though for most admirers of this tree, including me, are the beautiful, large, showy, bell-shaped flowers.

These flowers begin as a ball-shaped cluster around the middle of Autumn.  You can see the fabulous flower buds in this photo below.

Each brown banana-shaped flower bud is filled with water, forming a natural water pistol when squeezed.

The outer buds bloom first before the inner ones.   Blooming begins at the end of Autumn and continues on through our Winter.

When the flowers begin to open you can see the colours range from yellow at the base to scarlet red near the mouth on the inside, and bright orange merging to an orange-scarlet on the lobes.  Each perfumed flower lasts about 3 days.

Both the buds and the flowers are filled with nectar making it very popular with the local birdlife.

Bauhinia variegata 'alba' or 'candida' - White Bauhinia

In the outdoor garden beds at my place there are no lovely perennials that show their terrific colours every year ... or masses of wonderful foliage plants that add form and texture to the planting.  No, there are, however, quite a few very drought and sun hardy shrubs or trees that grow in the poorest of soil on the rocky hillside that makes up my property.  The foliage on these plants doesn't change colour ... there are no Autumn colours here ... and, aside from the Durantas, most of these plants don't flower at all.

There is however a tree that breaks into bloom in late Autumn and adds at least one spot of fabulous colour to the usually green garden beds down the driveway ... my beautiful Bauhinia variegata!

It's a striking sub-tropical tree ... very hardy in my dry tropics region.  It will grow to around 8 metres, has a short trunk and spreading branches.  It has distinctive kidney-shaped leaves. 

It gets abundant large fragrant white flowers with lemon-green markings.  These beautiful orchid-like flowers appear in our late Autumn and will continue flowering all through Winter.

The flowers begin appearing when the tree is fully dressed in its large green leaves.  This is the Bauhina as it appears right now ...

 ... and the first blooms have started appearing.

As the flowering continues, the leaves start to drop off until the whole tree is flowering on almost completely leafless branches. 

Here's a view of this semi-deciduous tree when it has dropped most of its leaves in the Winter just before it breaks into full bloom  (photo taken last Winter). 

Now for some photos of the beautiful flowers: