Iconic

(Random Woy Woy walkies)

Shocking walkies and photo weather so far this long weekend. Here's some I took last week.



Cabbage Tree Palms at Woy Woy Station. Proper name Livistona Australis.

Iconic local tree. Grows in the under-storey (under the trees) in local bush and pushes up to the canopy as it grows. Also grows in backyards and in carparks and on roundabouts on the F3.




Close-up of the Cabbage Tree Palm. Note the fan-shape of the fronds.

Early whitefellas in Australia made Cabbage Tree hats.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand says the heart of it is edible but doesn't say how to cook it.

Picture of teenage Cabbage Tree Palm




Bottlebrush. Iconic Australian flower. At the top, a third of the way across, you can see the buds. At the right, third of the way down, you can see the afters. They look like nuts but are not woody. (There's a joke in there somewhere.)

Bottlebrushes are flowering like mad at the moment in people's gardens and as streets trees in a street near the hospital. Might be Vidler Avenue, might be Mascot Street.

And are much enjoyed by lorikeets down the beach end of Ocean Beach Road.



Wiki Image

Dwyer Avenue has got oleanders as street trees.

"All parts of this plant are toxic" says Westmead Children's Hospital and "a single leaf could be lethal to an infant or child" says Wiki and "nausea and vomiting, excess salivation, abdominal pain, diarrhea...Extremities may become pale and cold due to poor or irregular circulation...can also affect the central nervous system...drowsiness, tremors or shaking of the muscles, seizures, collapse, and even coma that can lead to death".

Great plant for a street tree.


The boating news

It's nearly Putt Putt Regatta time again.

26th of October. Davistown foreshore. Get the ferry there from Woy woy Wharf.

2008 Regatta details

2007 Regatta - scroll down for photos


Havagoodlongweegend. I'm off to a barbie and it's just started raining again.