Nature Notes: A rare bloom, flannel flowers and a newly opened seed bank

A flourish of flannel flowers

One of the joys of a quick bush wander at this time of year is the chance to stumble upon flannel flowers. These native flowers grow all year round, but particularly flourish in Spring and we were lucky to come across several healthy patches on our weekend wander around the Northern Illawarra escarpment. Loved by all pollinators, especially it would seem, weevils, the petals are soft to the touch and make any hard slog totally worth it.

Rare bloom

The rare and wonderful Leptospermum spectabile is currently flowering at the Wollongong Botanic Garden. In the wild, it only grows on the rocky sandstone banks of the Colo River but you can see it in full bloom in the Garden’s Rare and Threatened Collection.

A library, but for seeds

Have you ever heard of a seed library? Well, a new one has just opened in the Oak Flats Library.

Instead of books, you borrow from their collection of heirloom seeds. You then plant and grow the seeds, harvest your crop, collect the seeds and return them to the library for other community members to use.

Read about the launch here