More wildflowers - Kalbarri National Park to Karratha – WA 28-08-2014

Magnificent wattle in bloom – Alan taking a close up of the White Plumed Grevillea

White Plumed Grevillea (Grevillea leucopteris) This graceful grevillea lined the verges here.

Pink Pokers (Grevillea petrophiloides) - Single bloom at Red Bluff, Karratha NP

Acorn Banksia (Banksia prionotes)

Dieles Grevillea (Grevillea dielsiana)

A look of porcelain in delicately tinted flowers.
 
(Thryptomene hyporhytis) heathland shrub in northern WA
   

Oldfields Starflower (Calytrix oldfieldii)

Parakeelya (Calandrinia polyandra)

Genus Dampiera ?

Also Genus Dampiera ?


Mayweed Sunray (Hyalosperma cotula)
 
Oldfields Clawflower   (Colothamnus oldfieldii)
 
Another Clawflower (Calothamnus quadrifidus)

Yellow Featherflower Verticordia noblis !

Odd leaves and unusual seed cones for native flora ?

Wildflowers at Kalbarri National Park – Western Australia 27-08-2014

Yellow Plume Grevillea (Grevillea eriostachya)

Spreading Coneflower (Isopogon divergens)

Bristly Cottonheads ? (Conostylis setigera)

Yellow and Purple Starflower (Calytrix depressa)

One sided Bottlebrush? (Calothamnus quadrifidus) Aboriginal name is Kwowdjard





 
Yellow and orange bracts surround the blossoms of this Geleznowia verrucosa

Deep chestnut and orange bracts almost conceal the blossoms of this Geleznowia verrucosa

View at Hawks Head Kalbarri National Park


Murchison Clawflower (Calothamnus homalophyllus)

Spoon-leaved Wattle (Acacia spathulifolia)

Queen of Sheba (Thelymitra variegata)  Woodland and heath plant - Uncommon - this was the only flower on such a modest little bush.

Stromatolites at Hamelin Pool – Shark Bay – Western Australia 26-08-2014

     Hamelin Pool is the location of the best example in the world of living marine stromatolites. The water here has twice the salinity of sea water because of a bar across the Bay's entrance and rapid evaporation from the shallow water. Most living animals, which feed on the bacteria and algae,  cannot tolerate such saline conditions. As a result stromatolites grow here undisturbed, at a maximum rate of 0.3mm a year! 

     For at least three-quarters of the earth's history stromatolites were the main reef building organisms, constructing large masses of calcium carbonate.

     However their most important role in the history of the earth has been that of contributing oxygen to the earth's atmosphere. The organisms which construct stromatolites are photosynthetic. They absorb carbon dioxide, water and sunlight, and in doing this, liberate oxygen into the atmosphere.

     Stromatolite fossils are evidence of the earliest life on the earth. Western Australia perhaps has the best stromatolite fossils, giving a record through the eons of time. Fossils of the earliest known stromatolites, about 3.5 billion years old, are to be found near Marble Bar in the Pilbara.

 

Pied Cormorant.

Cumulus sky - arid landscape at Hamelin Pool.

This photo is for Jo who says of me ‘why aren’t you in any of the blog pics!’

Fauna and Flora in Murujuga National Park – Western Australia 21-08-2014

Euro – wary, hard to capture on our camera.

Perentie?

Lambs-tails (Lachnostachys verbascifolia) ! – lovely plant anyway especially against chocolate coloured rocks.

Female Painted Finch?                                                                       Single-leaf Indigo

Gum-barked Coolibah (Eucalyptus intertexta)


Extraordinary moth – unable to identify!

Stobbs Goodenia

Old well?

Sturts Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa) in Deep Gorge.