Bungendore - Spooks Hill - Summer- January 22

It's been a while since I walked up to Spooks Hill and it's interesting to see the grasses once green are tall and dry, their seed heads nodding in the breeze. The native raspberry Rubus parvifolius have sweet, red berries though they are desiccating on the brambles. The Scotch Thistle Onoporium acanthium seems to have been taken over by a new type of thistle that I've never seen before but looks to be Carthamus lanatus.

I spotted another plant I hadn't seen before. It looks like some kind of Eryngos but I can't be sure what kind. There was also a tree heaving with small yellow fruit. They tasted like plums so I'm assuming that the tree was a yellow fruiting Cherry-Plum Prunus cerasifera. I wasn't sure if several of the purple flowering plants along the path were Paterson's Curse Echium plantagineum because they don't look like the ID photos.

Posted on January 22, 2021 09:36 AM by froggie79 froggie79

Observations

Photos / Sounds

What

Woolly Distaff Thistle (Carthamus lanatus)

Observer

froggie79

Date

January 21, 2021 09:29 PM +11

Description

Has overtaken Scotch Thistle throughout the Spooks Hill Reserve

Photos / Sounds

What

Blue Devil (Eryngium ovinum)

Observer

froggie79

Date

January 21, 2021 08:50 AM +11

Photos / Sounds

What

Small-leaf Bramble (Rubus parvifolius)

Observer

froggie79

Date

January 21, 2021 08:53 AM +11

Description

Berries are past their prime and now desiccating on the bramble

Photos / Sounds

What

Purple Viper's-Bugloss (Echium plantagineum)

Observer

froggie79

Date

January 21, 2021 08:53 AM +11

Description

This doesn't look like the examples in the ID photos but in pretty sure it's Patterson's Curse

Photos / Sounds

What

Cherry-Plum (Prunus cerasifera)

Observer

froggie79

Date

January 21, 2021 09:31 PM +11

Description

The fruit are deliciously sweet, tart and definitely plum tasting though it's the first time I've seen yellow plums

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