Austral Indigo (or Indigofera australis), one of the most recognisable and appealing local shrubs, is in full flower right now.

It's a classic of Eastern Australian 'native' gardening, loved for its colourful flowers, attractive shape and manageable size for home gardens. It's also widespread, occurring naturally in forests and woodland across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.

One of my favourite places for seeing it is up at Sharky's Beach in Coledale where there's a precious bit of coastal vegetation and glorious views of the ocean through the trees (as I like to say 'trees are the view').

Here the Austral Indigo is growing happily with sand-loving species like Coastal Tea Trees (Leptospermum laevigatum) and Coastal Wattle (Acacia longifolia var. sophorae). In a good spring this area looks amazingly beautiful. It's also fairly easily spotted at Croome Recreation Reserve in Croom and at Wollongong Botanic Garden.  

Without its flowers, Austral Indigo is pretty enough, with arching branches and dainty grey-green compound leaves. The flowers are the thing though. The flowering season, while intensely colourful, is fairly brief and usually over in a couple of weeks at most.

Austral Indigo is a larval food plant for a couple of local butterflies, the Common Grass-blue and the Common Grass-yellow. Common they might be, but it's always a delight if one stops by.

The small woody brown seed pods aren't hugely attractive to us humans but they hold an immense appeal for some parrots, particularly the Crimson Rosella. A couple of Crimsons can strip our plants of seed in a few days at most. It's a pleasure to give them a reliable spring feed, and they will often stick around a plant for as long as it takes to eat the lot. 

Get out when you can and enjoy the Austral Indigo while it's still flowering. And come back later for the parrots!