If you go down to Saddleback Mountain today, or to Mount Keira (Djeera) or Mount Kembla (Djembla), you might be lucky enough to come across a truly incredible flowering experience of a local plant that's almost unknown on the coastal plain, or in gardens. It's a well-kept secret of higher elevations along the escarpment.

Standing up to 2m high, and currently absolutely festooned with white pom-pom-type flowers, the Tall Rice Flower (or Pimelea ligustrina var. hypericina) is putting on the most amazing flowering show. I've not seen anything like it in my 15 years in Wollongong, although old-timers may have known better. 

Tall Rice Flower is a really striking plant when in flower, but you can walk past it without batting an eyelid when it's not flowering. Now is the right time to go out and spot it in nature.

Hoddles Track at Saddleback Mountain would be perfect, as plants are flowering all along the track as it leads down from the summit. Queen Victoria Drive at the top of Mount Keira (Djeera) is another good spot, although cars whizz up and down the road so it isn't the safest spot to dawdle. 

Close up, the inflorescences of Tall Rice Flower are gorgeous. Check out the detail here!

Tall Rice Flower plants also attract a range of insect pollinators. Walking at Saddleback Mountain the other day, a few of us saw the flowers attracting Macleay's Swallowtail butterflies (Graphium macleayanus), which were poking around. These butterflies can be seen around the region, feeding on flowers of a wide range of plant species. Their larvae enjoy eating the leaves of many local native tree and shrub species, including the Cryptocaryas, Tasmannias and Cinnamomums, which I'll have to get around to featuring another time! 

Here's a Macleay's Swallowtail enjoying the Tall Rice Flower flowers.