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.
Lesser Flannel Flower – Actinotus minor Low sprawling shrub with many slender branches. Leaves grey-green with 3 lobed segments. Flower heads small (about 12mm across). Sheltered slopes and open woodland. Some flowers all year round.
Cough Bush – Cassinia laevis Shrub to 3 m tall. Leaves narrow, to 50mm long and 1mm wide, with margins turned under. Flowers creamy-white in pyramidal clusters, to 10cm across. Occasional on drier plateau.
Barbwire Grass – Cymbopogon refractus Tufted perennial grass with stems to 1m tall bearing flower heads resembling barbed wire. Common along roadside around oval and elsewhere on drier plateau.
Saloop – Einadia hastata Low spreading plant with leaves opposite and broad, shaped like an arrow head. Flowers insignificant, in short clusters, followed by small red berries. Saline zone behind mangroves along Lime Kiln Bay.
Autumn Epacris – Epacris pulchella A small to medium shrub with pointed heart-shaped leaves. Flowers tubular, white and in clusters along the stem. Flowering mainly in autumn but often beginning early. Widespread.
Brown Stringybark – Eucalyptus capitellata Small to medium tree, with stringy bark. Adult leaves broad-lanceolate, thick and dark green. Buds in clusters of 7 or more; fruit compressed-spherical in tight clusters with enclosed valves. Flowers white, abundant. Uncommon in Park. One tree in oval parking area.
Love Creeper – Glycine clandestina Weak twining plant with leaves in three. Middle leaflet up to 80mm long and 5mm wide; all leaflets on stalk of the same length. Pea flowers mauve. Widespread and common. Flowering most of the year
Love Creeper – Glycine tabacina Weak twining plant with leaves in three. Leaflets 20mm x 5mm (sometimes larger), ovate, centre leaflet on stalk longer than side leaflets. Pea flowers mauve. In shaded sites and roadsides.
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 Robertso