SUMMER IN THE DANDENONGS

The Dandenong Ranges (commonly just called 'the Dandenongs') are a set of low mountain ranges, rising to 633 metres at Mount Dandenong, approximately 35 km east of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The ranges consist mostly of rolling hills, steeply weathered valleys and gullies covered in thick temperate rainforest, predominantly of tall Mountain Ash trees and dense ferny undergrowth.

After European settlement in the region, the ranges were used as a main source of timber for Melbourne. They were popular with day-trippers from the 1870s onwards. Much of the Dandenongs were protected by parklands as early as 1882 and by 1987 these parklands were amalgamated to form the Dandenong Ranges National Park, which was added to again in 1997. The ranges experience light to moderate snow falls a few times most years, frequently between late winter and late spring. In Summer the temperature is several degrees lower than that at Melbourne and the dense vegetation is luxuriant.

Today, the Dandenongs are home to over 100,000 residents and the area is popular amongst visitors, many of which stay for the weekend at the various Bed & Breakfasts through the region.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

WERRIBEE RIVER BIRDS

Ducks and a cormorant on the River.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the I'd Rather Be Birdin' meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

DUCK POND

At the Darebin Parklands again, watching with fascination the habits of the Pacific Black Ducks (and some ring-ins)...

This post is part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the I'd Rather Be Birdin' meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

SUMMER SUN

The temperature are beginning to climb in Melbourne as Summer draws nearer. We shall have a very warm, fine weekend and next week summery weather again. We were rather displeased with the cool weather and grey days of Spring, but now as the mercury begins to rise, we shall start complaining about the heat...

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme

and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

VIVALDI SKIES

Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring,
roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven, 
Then they die away to silence,
and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

PIED CORMORANT

The Australian pied cormorant, Phalacrocorax varius, also known as the pied cormorant or pied shag, is a medium-sized member of the cormorant family. It is found around the coasts of Australasia. In New Zealand it is usually known either as the pied shag or by its Māori name of Karuhiruhi. Older sources may refer to it as the "yellow-faced cormorant".

Although typically found in marine habitat (sometimes solitary, sometimes in pairs, sometimes in vast flocks of hundreds or thousands) it is also attracted to inland waters, including lakes, deep and open swamps, and rivers. The pied cormorant appears to feed largely on benthic fish. It will dive both in shallow, still water and in rapidly moving currents. Typical dive times are around 40 seconds, with a recovery period of 10–15 seconds between dives.

Here it is seen in the Darebin Parklands in Metropolitan Melbourne, living quite happily on the waters of a pond.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,

and also part of the Saturday Critters meme,

and also part of the I'd Rather Be Birdin' meme,

and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

SPRING SKY

Spring in Melbourne means highly variable weather, and I mean more so than usual... One needs to be prepared for cool to hot, and dry to wet conditions. However, the vegetation is all bright green and the sky more often than not a brilliant blue which is broken up by clouds so that it doesn't get too boring. Here is the big pond at the Darebin Parklands looking particularly attractive.

This post is part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

PARKLANDS POND

At the Darebin Parklands in suburban Melbourne, Spring smiles.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme.

MELBOURNE WEEDS 6 - JOINTED CHARLOCK

Raphanus raphanistrum, the wild radish or jointed charlock, is a flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae. It is sometimes claimed to be the ancestor of the edible radish, Raphanus sativus. Native to Asia (or, according to some authorities, the Mediterranean), it has been introduced into most parts of the world, and is regarded as a damagingly invasive species in many areas, for example Australia. It spreads rapidly, and is often found growing on roadsides or in other places where the ground has been disturbed.

In southeastern USA, the pale yellow form is common, sometimes entirely taking over fields in wintertime. It is often erroneously identified as mustard. It is a significant source of pollen and nectar for a variety of pollinators, especially honey bees during the very early spring starting buildup. Female Andrena agilissima, mining bees, frequent this plant to obtain pollen and nectar. 

Wild radish grows as an annual or biennial plant, with attractive four-petalled flowers 30–40 mm across and varying in colour, usually from white to purple but sometimes light orange to yellow, often with colour shading within a single petal. It is frost hardy, and even hard freezes only temporarily interrupt bloom. It blooms in early spring to late summer with flowers very similar to those of the searocket, which is found in some of the same regions and is easily distinguished from it by having thinner, non-succulent stems and leaves. It has a single taproot which is similar to that of the cultivated radish but less enlarged.

The genome of wild radish is estimated to be ~515 Mb. Approximately 49% of the genome (254 Mb) has been sequenced. researchers found evidence of a past whole-genome triplication in wild radish followed by widespread gene loss, resulting in ~38,000 genes in the genome of the extant species.

While this species is mostly a weed of agricultural areas and habitation, Raphanus raphanistrum is also troublesome in natural vegetation in some areas. It is seen as an environmental weed in Victoria and Western Australia and during a recent survey was listed as a priority environmental weed in two Natural Resource Management regions. In Victoria, wild radish is listed as a major environmental weed in Kinglake National Park. It is also present in other conservation areas in this state (e.g. Organ Pipes National Park) and appears on environmental weed lists for Knox City, Boroondara City and the Colac-Otway Shire.

This species is used as a salad vegetable in Greece, Turkey and in Southern Italy. It is also blanched with other wild mustard greens and used as a cooked vegetable. It contains many vitamins, minerals, has antioxidant and iron chelating properties.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

MELBOURNE STREET TREES 186 - PRICKLY MOSES

Acacia verticillata (prickly Moses; prickly-leaved wattle; star-leaved acacia; prickly mimosa; whorl-leaved acacia) is a perennial shrub to small tree in the Fabaceae family, native to Australia and Tasmania. The species is a common understorey shrub in both wet and dry sclerophyll forests as well as scrub and heath. In coastal environments it will often have much wider leaves as opposed to the regular needle-like nature of inland specimens.

Acacia verticillata stems are ribbed and are sparsely to densely hairy. The leaves are small sharply pointed phyllodes (false leaves) are up to 17 x 3 mm. and 1.5-2.5 mm wide. They have one prominent vein and 1-2 less prominent veins. Its inflorescences which are numerous (Southern Spring: September, October) consist of numerous pale yellow flowers arranged on short cylindrical spikes that extend beyond the leaves. Its seeds are in elongated pods (5-10 cm long) which are sparsely hairy when young and glabrous when mature. This trees dispersal is by seed. Trees are often covered by a fungally-induced galls.

On 1 September 2016, the Reserve Bank of Australia released a replacement of the polymer five dollar note which includes a stylised depiction of Acacia verticillata (subspecies ovoidea).

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

SPRING AFTERNOON

In the riverside park in Werribee, one fine Springtime...

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

PITTOSPORUM SEASON

Pittosporum undulatum is a tree growing to 15m tall with wavy (undulating) leaf edges. It is sometimes also known known as Sweet Pittosporum, Native Daphne, Australian Cheesewood, Victorian Box or Mock Orange. It carries conspicuous orange woody fruits about 1 cm in diameter for several months after flowering in spring or early summer.

Originally Pittosporum undulatum grew in moist areas on the Australian east coast but has increased its range since European settlement. It is a fast grower, and has become a weed in other parts of Australia where it is not indigenous. It is also highly invasive in South Africa, the Caribbean, Hawaii, the Azores and southern Brazil.

The status of P. undulatum around the Sydney area is contentious. Even though it is native to the region, P. undulatum has spread to soils and bushland where it wasn't found before European settlement, often out-competing other plants. It has done especially well in areas where the environment has been altered by humans - for example by habitat fragmentation weakening other natives, by fertiliser runoff from homes increasing soil nutrients and by the suppression of bushfires near suburbs.

During the Australian Spring (September) the tree is covered with a profusion of flowers that are highly fragrant. A sole tree in flower can scent a large area in the neighbourhood, especially during the evening and night. Orange fruits follow the flowers and these then open up to reveal several sticky reddish seeds.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Weekend Green meme.

FROSTY MORNING

At the Darebin Parklands, close to home.

This post is part of the Weekend Green meme,
and also part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Friday Photo Journal meme.

MELBOURNE WEEDS 5 - CANOLA

Rapeseed (Brassica napus), also known as rape, oilseed rape, rapa, rappi, rapaseed (and, in the case of one particular group of cultivars, canola), is a bright-yellow flowering member of the family Brassicaceae (mustard or cabbage family), cultivated mainly for its oil-rich seed. It is the third-largest source of vegetable oil in the world.

It is also consumed in China (油菜: Mandarin Pinyin yóucài; Cantonese:jau⁴coi³) and Southern Africa as a vegetable. The name derives from the Latin for turnip, rāpa or rāpum, and is first recorded in English at the end of the 14th century. Older writers usually distinguished the turnip and rape by the adjectives 'round' and 'long' (-'rooted'), respectively. Rutabagas, Brassica napobrassica, are sometimes considered a variety of B. napus. Some botanists also include the closely related B. rapa within B. napus.

Canola was developed through conventional plant breeding from rapeseed, an oilseed plant already used in ancient civilisation as a fuel. The change in name serves to distinguish it from natural rapeseed oil, which has much higher erucic acid content. In the 1970s, the Rapeseed Association of Canada chose the name "canola" to represent "Can" for Canada, and "ola" for oil. One dictionary purports that it stands for Can(ada) + o(il) + l(ow) + a(cid).

Canola oil is made at a processing facility by slightly heating and then crushing the seed.[Almost all commercial canola oil is then extracted using hexane solvent which is recovered at the end of processing. Finally, the canola oil is refined using water precipitation and organic acid to remove gums and free fatty acids, filtering to remove colour, and deodorising using steam distillation.

Throughout Melbourne, canola plants can be found as escapers from cultivation. These are considered weeds, although the leaves, seeds, and stems of this mustard variety are edible. The plant appears in some form in African, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Italian, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, and African-American (soul food) cuisines. In Greece the young flower-bud shoots are collected, boiled and served with an oil and lemon juice dressing as salad greens (one of the greens collectively known as "horta").

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Food Friday meme.