Our guide has been prepared with seasonal blooms in Oatley Park. The park protects important examples of the natural environment which occurred throughout the area before the spread of suburbs. Within its boundaries are numerous micro-habitats giving protection to a variety of native plants and to animals which rely on those plants for food, shelter and nesting.
Rough Hairy Wattle – Acacia hispidula Small shrub with phyllodes to 2cm long, rough to touch. Flower balls light yellow, each borne on a single stalk. One stand on ridge above Lime Kiln Bay. Some flowers all year round.
Black She-oak – Allocasuarina littoralis Erect tree with pine-like leaves and 6-8 leaf-teeth in a whorl around the stem joints. Male and female flowers different. Female inflorescences (pictured here) small, red and scattered along stems. Female flowers form distinctive cylindrical woody cones. Widespread and common.
Sydney Green Wattle – Acacia parramattensis Small tree with dark green feather-like foliage. Flowers pale yellow balls. Flowering December to early January. Roadsides around steamroller picnic area.
Native Blackthorn – Bursaria spinosa Small to medium shrub with thorny branches. Leaves small, to 30mm long. Flowers small white 5-petalled and often abundant. Occurs near oval and along lower track from Douglas Haig Street.
Common Hop Bush – Dodonaea triquetra Shrub to 2m. Leaves lance-shaped to 10cm long, light green. Flowers insignificant, in terminal clusters, developing into 3-winged fruit capsules. Grows well after fire and is often the dominant plant in an area. Widespread.
Flax Wattle – Acacia linifolia Open shrub to 4m tall with small narrow phyllodes. Flowers creamy balls borne along upper branchlets. Common in woodland. Some flowers from Dec to Sept.
Trailing Lobilia – Lobelia gracilis Trailing plant to 30cm tall. Leaves toothed. Flowers blue-mauve with 3 spreading petals, the middle one broader than those on each side. Prefers open forest with grassy understorey. Not common.
Bleeding Heart – Omalanthus populifolius Small tree with large heart-shaped leaves, some of which turn red with age (hence the common name). Flowers small on terminal spikes about as long as the leaves. Fruit a capsule. Occasional tree near oval and around Lime Kiln Bay.
White Root – Pratia purpurascens Small herb. Leaves elliptical, toothed and purplish on the underside. Flowers pale mauve to white. Solitary on long stalks. Sheltered places among grass.
Fringed Lily – Thysanotus tuberosus Much-branched erect plant with distinctive purple fringed three-petalled flowers. Common in some open woodland areas of plateau and slopes.
Trachymene – Trachymene incisa Erect herb to 60cm tall with dissected leaves. Flowers white in terminal umbels of 30+ tiny flowers. Known from only one site on sheltered slopes.
Large Grass Tree – Xanthorrhoea arborea Stout plant with blackened trunk to 1.5m tall topped by a skirt of long narrow leaves, 5 – 7mm wide. Flower spike about 1.5m long on top of scape about the same length. Flowers white. Scattered around Headland Track, but not all flowering at same time.
For More information on the Flora of Oatley Park and Sydney Region check out the publications below:
- Native Plants of Oatley Park, A Photographic Guide Published by Oatley Flora and Fauna Conservation Society
- Native Plants of Oatley Park Compiled by Alan Fairley, copies available at Oatley Flora and Fauna monthly meetings.
- Native Plants of the Sydney District an identification guide, by Alan Fairley & Philip Moore, available in book shops.
- D’harawal Seasons and Climatic Cycles, Compiled by Frances Bodkin & Illustrated by Lorraine Robertson