Gallery of flower pictures

This gallery of indigenous vegetation flowering around the estuary, taken by a local friend of the Bot River Estuary, and published on his Facebook page Fisherhaven Flora.

Indigenous vegetation flowering in areas cleared of alien vegetation in Fisherhaven.

At any one time you will not see all these flowers at once as they flower at different times of the year. However, this is a limited selection as there are over 400 indigenous flowers to the Fisherhaven area. Each species is selective of the conditions where they will grow well. Fisherhaven is fairly unique in that conditions change over very short distances. This is due to the very variable geology, depth of soil, water conditions, slope and drainage, wind factors and surrounding plants.

There is also a great video done by Wide Open in the Stanford area. Many of these species occur there as well. Their area has been well managed for many years. Unfortunately, large areas of Fisherhaven have been poorly managed for many years and alien invasive species such as Port Jackson and Australian Myrtle have so dominated many areas that they have outcompeted and overgrown the indigenous vegetation in the Fisherhaven area.

Most of the plants shown also occur close to the Bot Estuary or on public green spaces which have been cleared mostly by private individuals. A few gardens are well looked after with many indigenous plants. Unfortunately, most private land consists of lawns with mostly exotic flowers in garden beds. Many of the empty plots are mostly invasive plants, including road verges. Mowing destroys indigenous plants and temporarily sets back the invasive plants. The problem with the bad management is primarily raising the fire hazard for the whole area.

Luckily, the indigenous seedbed is still viable in most areas of Fisherhaven and demonstrated management and cost effective techniques have been established on some green areas but little or incorrect follow-ups are resulting in crisis issues of limiting biodiversity and fire hazards.