A Flower a Week : Silky Oak…

Look very carefully you may see the lorikeet

Grevillea robusta, commonly known as the southern silky oak or silky oak, or Australian silver oak, is the largest species in the genus Grevillea of the family Proteaceae. It is not closely related to the true oaks, Quercus. It is a native of eastern coastal Australia, in riverine, subtropical and dry rainforest environments receiving more than 1,000 mm per year of average rainfall. ( Wikipedia information)

Jack planted this Silky Oak tree about 12 years ago. He bought it as a 6 inch tall seedling from a market. Now look at it.

It towers above the houses and it is still growing. It is beautiful when in flower and the lorikeets love the abundant nectar it produces. But look at all the leaves it drops…

I’m not sure how safe it would be if a hurricane roared through and I would like to prune the top off it, but the tree man tells me he is not allowed to touch it as it is a native…

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Nalinki on “Angles and views” is hosting a weekly series called: “Flowersoverflowers”, it will be posted every Tuesday. The idea is to bring some more colorful pics of nature into our blogosphere.