Fur, Feathers, Flowers and More #20

It is the Australian Plant Society Yarra Yarra Spring Expo out at Eltham this weekend 9 & 10 September. Give yourself a treat and get along to view the wide range of display and "For Sale" plants.

Deal direct with growers for very competitively priced plants from tubestock to advanced.

Plants in our bushland wildflower walks

We have some wonderful flowering plants displaying their wares presently - pick a sunny day and take a stroll.

Enjoy where we live.

Plant of the week

Austral Storksbill

This Aussie native is a member of the pelargonium family. A colony has established well in the Sherwood Road gardens west of the PSO's Chook Shed.

Keen observers may have noticed that a plant established down on the ballast of the station tracks - now that was a hardy plant until our railways colleagues came along spraying.

Beast of the week

Platypus

According to the book "Still Glides the Stream" the platypus was being sighted in the Yarra at Heidelberg in the 1960s.

Sounds bleak, but platypuses are still in the Upper Yarra and its tributaries.

Vulnerable populations of platypus have been observed in:

• Diamond Creek in Eltham
• Lower Plenty River in Greensborough
• Olinda Creek between Lilydale and Mount Evelyn
• Little Yarra River in Yarra Junction.

Water quality in the Yarra (turbity, pollution, habitat destruction and flow interference) are held responsible for the disappearance of platypuses from the Lower Yarra.

Bird of the week

Yellow Robin

This delightful little bird is regarded as common down along the Yarra at Wilsons Reserve.