This week, I have again seen some flowers on plants that I haven’t seen before, mainly on trees. I know the trees quite well as they are fairly common here in Sydney, but I’ve never seen their flowers close up before, if at all.

The first one is called Lophostemon confertus, or Brush Box. This Australian native tree is important for the larval stage of some native butterflies here in Australia, along with being useful in urban areas due to its pollution, disease and drought resistance. It’s also a good looking tree. Below is a picture of the pretty little flowers.

Next is another tree that I often see, but haven’t seen the flowers of before-a surprise as they are rather bright and showy! The tree is Castanospermum australe, another Australian native with the common name of Moreton Bay Chestnut. I have to say, I do like the flowers quite a lot!

Next we have the bark and flowers of the Illawarra Flame Tree, aka Brachychiton acerifolius. This is another Australian native tree that flowers in spring. In the way that this tree flowers the species can be variable-some are a huge mass of red flowers without the leaves (and look stunning), while others are more subtle and have fewer flowers and have some leaves on their branches too, and still look great.

Finally, I have a couple of Gazinia flowers for you, just because they look great.