The wild flowers are just starting to emerge! How exciting!  This week, the Nodding Greenhoods began to show and today we noticed very tiny white flowers coming up in places on the recently mown grass behind our garden beds.

Tell-tale sticky red hairs covering the leaves revealed it was an insectivorous plant, and further research reveals it is a Scented Sundew.  The plants, including flower stem, are no more than 4 cm high.  At first glance, they just looked like lawn daisies, except for the shape of the petals.  As you can see in the photographs, unopened flower buds surround the open flowers. I’m not sure how long the flowers survive, so if we end up with a larger patch of Scented Sundew flowers, I’ll post an update.

Now for a  few facts elicited from my field guides. The Scented Sundew :

• can grow in clay soil or sandy soil,
• will flower during Winter and Spring
• is not recognised as a threatened species
• is found in South Western and Central parts of Victoria and the South Eastern parts of South Australia
• while not a staple food source for any animal, may be eaten by kangaroos, wallabies or rabbits.

I’ll just have to keep my fingers crossed that our resident kangaroos don’t need to resort to eating Sundew plants.