For my birthday last week, I got a mushroom growing kit from my lovely husband. While not a plant but a fungus, I’m all excited about these mushrooms as they are one of my favourite foods.

These pretty flowers are from Leptospermum petersonii, or lemon-scented tea tree. This is a native of Australia and New Zealand, with its oils (from its leaves) often used in candles and soaps.

This is the fruit of Araucaria cunninghamii, also called a hoop pine. This is a fairly common tree here in Sydney and on that I quite like. The picture below this is of some individual seeds.

Here is a an example of a hoop pine.