Christian Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Hello, last September i have been together with some friends on a cp trip in Western Australia. We found by far more many carnivorous plants, orchids and other stuff than we could imagine. I am still sorting my pictures and will post them here, whenever i have some ready. I have already posted some in the german forum, so please forgive me in case you have already seen some of them. We spent the first day nort of Perth on our way to Cervantes. The first location was a lake, still in Perth. There we foud the following plants. Drosera erythorhiza is probaby the most widespread species in that area. If you find cps, there will probably bee some of them as well. The only Drosera, that might rival D. erythrorhiza is D. glanduligera. It's one of the most wide spread Drosera throghout Australia. You will find them almost everywhere in South Western Australia. Interestingly it is very hard to grow Drosera pulchella is likely the pygmy Drosera we found most often. They are ofen found on very wet places (which is not typical for Drosera in that area). The lakes around Perth are know for the hybrid D. x sidjamesi (patens x pulchella). As it is very hard to identify none flowering pygmy Drosera i am not 100% sure, but i think the following plant is one of these hybrids. This evening we wanted to stay in Cervantes. Cervantes is know for the Nambung National Park and the Pinnacles Desert. That's a must if you are in that area. The landscape is just amazing! Regards, Christian 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 6, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Hello, we spent the next day northwest of Cervantes. The area is full of carnivorous plants and we found many of them. The pictures i show here are all just from the morning before noon. We started the day at Lake Thetis. Lake Thetis is know for one of the few remaining living Stromatolites that still exist on earth. Another thing you should look at when you are in this area. The lake is quite flat and very salty. There are no carnivorous plants directly at the lake. In the surrounding vegetation you can find some D. macrantha. I have only taken bad pictures of them, so it's not worth to show. We than drove further towards Jurien Bay. There we fastly bought some food and drinks for the evening before we started to look for carnivorous plant. It did not take long until we found the first cps of the day. There were so many, that we stayed the whole morning there without even noticing how long we stayed there. Here are some pictures It's not always easy to identify plants from the D. erythrorhiza complex. I think, the following plants are D. magna. Drosera glanduligera is really growing everywhere! Here we also found the first plants from the D. menziesii complex. There have been two species, D. menziesii and D. thysanosepala. In 2011 i made a similar trip through south Western Australia. We did not see D. prophylla back then, so this was a new species to all of us. We also found some D. hirsuta, which is again a species we have not seen in 2011. There have also been some pygmy Drosera. At this place we found a very nice population of Drosera spilos. It's always worth to look not only for carnivorous plants. Western Australia has many fascinating plants! Part 2 of that day will follow.... Regards, Christian 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
linuxman Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Thanks for posting Christian - interesting photos. Was it really 2011 last time you went? Wow, how time flies! - I remember that series of photos very well.This encourages me to go looking for CPs next time I'm in Oz. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
picol Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Really thanks for sharing these photos!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Argo88 Posted January 6, 2019 Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Thanks a lot for sharing these beautiful photos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 6, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 6, 2019 Martin, yes, our first trip to Western Australia is really 7 years ago. Time is really running fast, so it was time to go there again! In the afternoon we drove further east and stopped at a place, that had as least as many cps as the place before. Here, we also found D. magna and D. prophylla There were also some nice D. porrecta growing. At this location, D. thysanosepala had white flowers. For us, the hihlight of this location were two orange flowered Drosera, D. barbigera and D. coomallo. Both of them had been in flower the day we saw them. Grastree are very typical for that area. You can find them on many places, that carnivorous plants grow. They are actually a good indicator to find possible Drosera habitats. Stylidium can also be found almost everywhere. They seem to prefer similar habitats than Drosera. Regards, Christian 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobH Posted January 9, 2019 Report Share Posted January 9, 2019 Really nice informative pictures of the plants and their natural habitats. Thanks for sharing. Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 10, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 10, 2019 (edited) Hallo, here are some more pictures from that day. We actually drove to that area in hope to find Byblis lamellata on a known location for that species. Unfortunately we have not been able to find them At least we could find some very nice Drosera, so it was worth going there anyway. The place was almost pure white sand. It was not too easy to take good picture, i hope you like what i was able to take :) At this place, there have been two variants of D. thysanosepala, one with white flowers and the other with more pinkish flowers. The next species we were able to see was D. porrecta There have been members of the D. erythorhiza complex as well. This should be D. magna again. As for the pygmy Drosera, we also found lots of them. They are not too easy to identify without flowers. This one could be D. pedicellaris. As i already told you, it's also worth to look at other plants. One of the nicest we saw at this place was probably that one: From there we drove back south. We wanted to stay in Gingin for the night. I called the local caravan park from the road to make sure we can stay there. Along the Brand Highway we stopped some more times. We have been out in the field until it got too dark (that's about 18.30 in that area). All the following pictures have been taken on several stops along the Brand Highway. One of the most widespread Orchids in that area is Caladenia flava. It was always nice to see them! We finally arrived in Gingin. As we were very hungry we started to cook. But, the cooker did not really work well and it took hours (not exaggerated!) to prepare simple noodles with tomato sauce as they just did not get hot. One of the things we will probably remember a quite long time :) Christian Edited January 10, 2019 by Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 12, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2019 Hello, on the morning of the next day we drove from Gingin via Bindoon to look around in the area of Chittering. We only stopped in Bindoo to buy some food and drinks and did not look for D. bindoon which is named after that small town. We first stopped to look for carnivorous plants close to Chittering. There we found a small granite rock outcrop which looked promising. The first Drosera we found was Drosera collina. To me it always is fascinating to see the variant of a plant of group in the habitat. They all were different. Besides Drosera collina, there also were some nice Drosera drummondii as well as the widespread D. glanduligera. This place had again some really nice orchids and other plants! After this location we drove further south to the John Forrest National Park. There we knew a location from 2011 which we wanted to check out. While looking for the place we have been in 2011 we found some Drosera. The first species we found was again Drosera collina followed by Drosera rosulata. Some Drosera menziesii have been there as well We finally found the place we have been 2011. But, before we went up the rock we got to see some Kangaroos and Kakadus. A bit later we started to climb up the small granite rock outcrop. In 2011 we saw a very nice population of Drosera heterophylla at this location. This species was the reason why we went there. But first, we again found some Drosera rosulata. In 2011 we had no luck and all Drosera heterophylla have finished flowering. Unfortunately we had to make the same experience again. I have so far never seen a flower of Drosera heterophylla (neither in habitat nor in cultivation). For those, who are not familiar with this species, this is one of the few exceptions in the Genus that does not have 5 petals. D. heterophylla is known to have up to 12 petals. I will have to wait to see this with my own eyes :) But, anyway the location was nice and well worth to go there. If you look very close to the ground you might spot the small Utricularia tenella. The flower is really small and so it is easy to overlook it. To end with this location, here is what it looks like: Another quite common bird in this area is the australian Ringneck. Probably nothing special for ustralians, but for us it was really nice to see them. more soon... Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Hello, in the afternoon we wanted to drive to Brookton to stay in the local caravan park for that night. On the way we wanted to see some locations along the Brookton Highway. We made several stops where we found the following plants D. menziesii, rosulata and glanduligera have not been new. We found them on several different places. Auf dieser Strecke hatten wir eigentlich die Hoffnung schöne Drosera gigantea zu finden. 2011 hatten wir dort einige sehr schöne Stellen mit dieser Art gesehen. Dieses Jahr waren sie leider noch nicht so weit: We were hoping to find Drosera gigantea in that area. We have seen some nice plants in 2011. This year, they have not yet been so far. We could only find one plant which was already in flower. Another common plant in that area is Drosera stolonifera. At the end of the day we saw a very nice population of Drosera zonaria. Interestingly, we have been on that place in 2011 already but have not seen them. There have been so many of them, that i hardly can't believe we have not seen them last time. Of course, there have also been some pygmy Drosera. We could find D. hyperostigma and D. nitidula as well as one plant, that i can't identify. On one of the locations we have seen some U. multifida. The plant we most wanted to see was Byblis gigantea. We have known this location from our last trip, so we knew where to look for them. Unfortunately, the plants are just beginning to grow in September. As they have almost the same color as the surrounding vegetation it was not so easy to find them. Our plan was to stay that night in Brookton. I tried to call them from the afternoon on, but had no luck. As we arrived there we had to find out, that they don't have any cabins, just some sites for Caravans. So we had to look for an alternative. Brookton is, as most of the towns in that area, not too large. There was just one other hotel, which was unfortunately already full. The nice people from that hotel helped us a lot and tried to phone the hotel in Pingelly, which is only about 15km (so just around the corner for that part of the world) away. We could get some rooms there. The people from Brookton asked us several time if it is ok for us, as this hotel is quite old. It was already late and we did not want to drive any further, so we booked the rooms there. In Pingelly we fastly checked in. The hotel is really old and the rooms had not much more than a bed and a couch. That was it. It was in fact old and some renovations would really be needed. We did not really feel comfortable. The food was ok and they also had some drinks. We left early the next morning and we probably will try to avoid this place in case we will be in that area again in the future. Regards, Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nepenthesman Posted January 15, 2019 Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Stunning photos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 15, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 15, 2019 Hello, we left the hotel early and had breakfast in a local bakery. There we got the tip to check out a larger granite rock outcrop close to Pingelly. As it is always worth to follow hints of locals we drove there. The way was a good gravel road. Roads like that are very common in that area. When we arrived at the granite outcrop it took only a few minutes until we found the first plants. One of the most prominent plants there were U. multifida. On this location we could find one of the rarer white flowered forms of this species. There have also been some Drosera. No new species, but it was always nice to find something! Besides the carnivorous plants, there have also been other nice things to see. Here is a picture of the habitat. We drove back to the Brookton Highway and then further east to Hyden. In Corrigin we stoped to refill the car and to buy some food and drinks. Whenever possible, we stoped around noon at Roadhouses like this as they most often offer something to eat and drink. A few kilometer before Hyden we stoped and there we could find the first yellow flowered Drosera of our trip. This one is D. subhirtella The location: This night we wanted to stay in Hyden. We had luck and could get a nice Apartment at the Caravan Park. As we arrived a bit early we decided to go first to the Wave Rock, for which Hyden is known. That's one of the best known touristic places in south Western Australia. In contrast to the days before we have not been alone there. The iconic Rock Around this Rock you can find many carnivorous plants. We saw D. bulbosa, macrantha, glanduligera, yilgarnensis and stricticaulis there. The landscape above the "Wave" is also very interesting and worth to see! It was early afternoon as we checked in to our Apartment. At about 16 o'clock we started again to see another location in the south of Hyden. There were still about 2 hours until sunset, so we had not too much time. As we wanted to drive further east the next day we would not have time the next day for this, so we decided to take the chance and see if we can still see something when we arrive. We arrived when the sun was already starting to go down. The location is really nice and you can probably spend a whole day there. We had roughly one hour and so we did not waste much time. The first Drosera we found were some D. rupicola Another new species for this trip was D. graniticola. On the last picture you can as well see D. yilgarnensis. We were very happy to see D. lowriei at this location The day ended with some nice D. macrantha in the back light. Regards, Christian 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gardenofeden Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 Wow, fantastic pics! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Nigel Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 Very good, thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kisscool_38 Posted January 19, 2019 Report Share Posted January 19, 2019 Thank you for all those pictures! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 20, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 20, 2019 (edited) Hello, the next day we wanted to drive from Hyden to Norseman. As we have been told, that this road might be not in the best conditions we started very early, especieally as we wanted to check out another granite rock outcrop, a bit north of Hyden before leaving to Norseman. We arrived at this granite rock outcrop a bit later. We have been there 2011 and so we knew, that there is a quite large population of D. rupicola. Unfortunately we did not have too much time to check the whole rock, so we just looked around at the base of it. There we could find some D. rupicola as well as some D. bulbosa, together with some drosera bugs. We then drove back to Hyden to check out. It was about 9 in the morning when we started towards Norseman. The road has not been so complicated as we have been told, so we had no problems. Lucky for us :) That day we drove about 250 kilomter on that road, which did not change much over the distance. http://www.utricularia.de/bilder/reisen/WA_2018/IMG_2023.jpg We knew, that there is a chance to see D. salina and D. zigzagia in that area. These two were the reason why we wanted to drive that road. Also, D. browniana is roughly known for this area, but probably too far away from the road, so we only had small hopes to find this one. In general, this area has not been explored much. On the first stop we found the yellow flowered Drosera moorei. The landscape was well worth it all, but we could not find some Drosera for some hours after we found D. moorei. Later that day we arrived on a place where there was a small "Wave". There we could find some Drosera macrantha. A bit later we saw a huge Salt Lake. There we stopped again. We looked around and finally found such a plant: That's Droser salina! One of the plants we hoped to see that day. The population was quite large, there have been hundreds of them. All the effort paied of :) Later we could also see some Emus. The last place we stopped that day was again a granite rock outcrop. There we found some D. macrantha as well as some D. yilgarnensis. The actual highlight of that place was the following Drosera, which has so far not been doubtless identified. Time will tell, what this one is. The rest of the day was rather unspectacular. We had Fish & Chips in a local pub and spent the rest of the evening in our cabins. The following night was probably the coldest of our trip. I have even seen a little bit of ice on the window of our car in the next morning. Christian Edited January 20, 2019 by Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobH Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Really enjoying your travelogue and your superb pictures of Drosera species in their natural habitat. So nice to see these plants growing wild. Many thanks, Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jasperD Posted January 21, 2019 Report Share Posted January 21, 2019 Really nice pictures! It's always fun to see carnivorous plants in their natural habitat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted January 27, 2019 Author Report Share Posted January 27, 2019 Hello, the next day is told fast. After the probably coldest night of our trip (about 0°C) we started this mornings south towards Esperance. Here is a picture of the cabins we spent that night in. We had no special plan for that day, other than to arrive in Esperance. n the way we stopped several times on smaller (Salt)Lakes, but could not find any carnivorous plants on the way. The Lakes have been quite interesting, though. At about twelve we arrived in Esperance and drove to the Tourist Information to find a place to sleep for the next days. As there was a public holiday as well as school holidays coming we had no chance to get something directly in town. We could book an apartment on a farm, about 20km out of town, though. As we already knew farm stays from other countries we were not disappointed at all. As there was still some time (we could check in only from two on at the farm), we went for a walk in Esperance. Esperance is a quite nice town with a population of about 10000 people and so one of the larger towns on the south coast of Western Australia. Later we drove to the farm and checked in. We were very heartly welcome. The Apartment was very nice, there was everything you need. When we looked out of the kitchen window, we could see a granite rock outcrop and we immediately thought, that there must be carnivorous plants on that rock. The farmers told us, that the rock belongs to their farm and that we are welcome to check it out. First, we went back to Esperance to buy some food and drinks for our stay at the farm. We arrived back late afternoon and did not waste any time to check out the granite rock outcrop. Our feeling was totally right! The rock was dominated by a large population of Drosera ramellosa, some other Drosera and some Orchids! It was a pleasure to have them so close by and so not carry our camera equipment a longer way. At the evening we learned, that our farmers do have a small herbarium with plants, that come from their farm and especially from this granite rock. We agreed to go there with them on on of the evenings of our stay to help them identifying some of the plants. Gruß, Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted February 20, 2019 Author Report Share Posted February 20, 2019 Hello, we spend the next day in the Cape Le Grand, close to Esperance. The Cape Le Grand is known for some beuatiful beaches with white sand and turquoise water. But first, the carnivorous plants we found that day. I have seen Utricularia westonii at this place already in 2011. At that time, the plants have been close to flower. We were hoping to find them in flower this year. But, the season was much wetter and the plants have not yet been so far. U. westonii flowers, when the water level begins to go down in spring. This year was quite wet and almost all plants we found have still been under water. We measured a maximum of 12cm water depth. The habitat looks like that: You can find small, round pygmy Drosera almost everywhere. At this place we found some D. australis (or occidentalis??) as well as some D. pulchella On drier places you can find D. scorpioides and D. sargentii We haven't seen Drosera zonaria there in 2011, so we were a bit surprised to find them :) While we were looking for U. westonii, we found another very nice Utricularia. I have known, that U. menziesii is growing there, but at this moment i have not expected to see it. They have even been in full flower, which was a nice surprise! Drosera esperensis is name after the town of Esperance, close to this National Park. Of course, we wanted to see them. The easiest to find them is to walk up this mountain Fortunately, the plants can be found in this green areas below the peak. They look like this: We also climbed up the mountain. It's not that complicated if the weather is good, so we could enjoy the nice view around from up there. On the last picture you can see some fog cominng up. At this moment we did not yet understand, that it came from a place very close to where we were staying. Elythranthera is one of the nicest plants i have seen in Western Australia. It was always nice to see them! In the afternoon we went to some of the famous beaches. According to Wikipedia, the Lucky Bay is amongst the Bays with the whitest sand on the world. This bay is also known for kangaroos, that come close to the sea. The first bay we went to was the Hellfire Bay After spending some time at the Hellfire Bay we went to Lucky Bay. Carnivorous plants are really everywhere. We could spot the one or the other species while driving from one to the other place. Also, some other interesting and nice plants While driving back to our Accomodation, the fogs got more and more dense and it got clear, that the fire must have been somewhere close to our Apartment. It got closer and closer and at some point we were afraid, that it was directly on the farm we stayed on. Fortunately it was on a neighboring farm and it was a controlled burn, so everything was ok. On the way back home we could again see some Kangaroos as well as some Emus. Regards, Christian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted March 3, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 3, 2019 Hello, we spent the next day as well in the National Park looking for carnivorous plants and more. We basically found, what we have seen the day before. As there is nothing more to tell, here are just some pictures from that day. Regards, Christian 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koen C. Posted March 11, 2019 Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 Fantastic pictures! Do you know what tree this is? I'm not sure if it's a pine or an Araucaria Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeeB Posted March 11, 2019 Report Share Posted March 11, 2019 It is an Araucaria. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sean Spence Posted March 12, 2019 Report Share Posted March 12, 2019 Norfolk Island pine - Araucaria heterophylla 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted March 16, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 16, 2019 (edited) Hello, thanks for the identification, Sean. I will update my pictures later :) Here is day 9 (of 19). After leaving the Cape Le Grand, our next stopp was planed to be Hopetoun in the eastern part of the Fitzgerald River NP. To go there we decided not take all the highway. Instead we wanted to take a smaller road for the last part of the drive to have the chance to see some carnivorous plants there. There are some lakes close to Esperance, that sometimes turn pink. This happens if the weather is right for a certain algae to grow. As this only happens very rarely, it was almost sure, that we will not see a pink lak :) The next stopp was the Roadhouse in Munglinup. There we bought some food and drinks. But we also wanted to check out a plant we found there in 2011, that we had not been able to identify with certainty back than. It now turned out, that they are D. macrantha After the stopp, there was a bit of driving before we turned into the small road we wanted to go. Immediately after driving on this road, we got slower as there was a lot to see. Besides some Drosera we could find some fascinating Orchids as well as lots of other plants. As for Drosera, D. socrpioides is quite wide spread in this area. We could also find some Drosera leucoblasta (if the identification is correct) and for the tuberous Drosera it was D. drummondii. Some nice Caladenia! Andd here are the Drosera: some more plants At the late afternoon we arrived in Hopetound and we were lucky to get a Cabin at the local Caravan Park. We quickly bought something to eat for the evening and then we went to the harbour to spend the rest of the day there. Regards, Christian Edited March 16, 2019 by Christian 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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