Thursday, November 13, 2008

Other plants

Although orchids were our primary focus of interest, we found an endless array of fascinating plants of every conceivable kind. Probably the most iconic, and typifying the Kimberleys, were the wonderful Boab trees. Not to be confused with the Queensland Bottle Tree, which it resembles to a degree, the Boab probably originated aeons ago from Africa and is unique to the Kimberleys. Every boab tree is unique. They have character and personality as you would expect of such an ancient creature. Some individual boab trees are reputed to be 1500 years old and more, which makes them the oldest living beings in Australia, and puts them amongst the oldest in the world. While the Aborigines found many uses for the Boab and its fruit, it took white Australians to discover it could be used as a jail, as was the case with the venerable specimen below) :-(
More boabs:
Western Australia is world renowned for the magnificence of its wild flower displays. Here are some examples of why.




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