Everywhere I look at the moment there's an amazing local native plant in flower, or weighed down with fruit, or sometimes even both at the same time! It's hard to know what to focus on. Until, that is, you catch sight of a Stinkwood flowering its head off, and decked out with its distinctive orange and yellow pompoms. There's just no competition!

This truly unique and colourful local tree is a total standout when it's in full flower. The seed pods are also interesting and attractive, with their curly-wurly shape, orange-brown colours and shiny black seeds inside (a bit of a give-away that it's in the Pea or Fabaceae family of plants). Unfortunately it's not a tree you'll see growing in many parks or on verges in the region (though I'm sure this might change if everyone starts asking for it as a street tree, hem hem). If you want to check out a healthy specimen of this tree, one possibility is Richardson Park in Keiraville, where there are a couple of established trees growing really well in a well cared-for natural area along a creekline. They are flowering right now, and in a few weeks will be covered in fruit. I don't have records but reckon that the seeds would be appealing to parrots, while the flowers are known to attract a range of bees, flies and butterflies, including the handsome Tailed Emperor butterfly. Oh, and the flowers actually smell nice! 

Visit the Growing Illawarra Natives website for more information about local plants