Another day, another dollar as the saying does. Another day of fairly boring work, but I did see a few rather interesting things today (which is a big blessing really).

These fabulously coloured leaves are from the Ti plant (or Cordyline fruiticosa). This is quite a common plant in Sydney gardens, although a lot of them look tatty for lack of care, being planted in the wrong place or both. This one looks good though.

These little critters are a new one on me. Caterpillars are common in gardens, but the species, the sheer number of them and the damage caused to clivia’s they were eating through was rather extensive. From doing some basic research, I think that these are lily caterpillars thriving in humid conditions. I’m going to do some more research on this particular caterpillar, firstly to make sure I’ve got the species right and then to make sure I have usable information to use at work.

I love the way new fern fronds grow and extend . This one is ready to do its thing. This particular tree fern is Cyathea cooperi. One way that I remember how to identify this tree is by the trunk scars left by previous fern fronds. Coming from England, we call our one and two pence pieces ‘coppers’ which is similar enough to the ‘cooperi’ part of the name for me to remember it.

I see a lot of snails at work, I’ve never seen so many in one place before. I think my workplace has some pest and disease issues to work on! All they do is put slug pellets down when they plant their annuals and not much else from what I can see. Depending on how the rest of the week goes (and it could get interesting), I’ll start showing them what an irritation I actually can be-I will be suggesting ways to solve their problems other than by using chemicals all the time for their pest problems!

This strelitzia in flower at the moment. They are rather dull for the strelitzia genus and this species (Strelitzia nicolai) is a monstrously massive, tatty plant when it gets going-the picture below was taken over a wall at least two metres high (and I am only 1.73m tall).

So that is my day in plants and pests at work. I’m hoping for a more interesting day tomorrow, but a pleasant one too. Getting that may be difficult!