What's in flower right now

Look for fat, greenish-yellow flower-brushes on a gnarled, corky-barked shrub-tree, standing among older brushes gone grey and the spent, knobbly cones. One of the heath's richest nectar bars, worked by honeyeaters through the day.

Flowers February to June, at its peak April to May.

Big, waxy, pendulous trumpets glowing red-orange and tipped with gold, hung out on a slender stalk that stands clear of the scrub. Best in the year or two after a fire has been through the heath.

Flowers November to February, at its peak December to January.

A wiry, fine-leaved heath shrub scattered with small, starry, four-petalled pink flowers, part of the spring riot that erupts across the sand country. Crush a leaf and it is faintly aromatic.

Flowers August to November, at its peak September to October.

A low, straggling heath shrub hung with clusters of curved, red, spidery flowers (a representative of the wallum's grevilleas). The curled styles and beads of nectar draw honeyeaters and native bees.

Flowers June to October, at its peak August to September.

A slender heath pea smothered in small yellow-and-red 'eggs-and-bacon' flowers through spring. One of the many native peas that turns the wallum gold each September.

Flowers August to October, at its peak September.

Larger-flowered than most heath peas, with open, clear-yellow blooms on a wiry shrub. It flowers with the rest of the spring peas, on sand that looks too poor to grow anything.

Flowers September to November, at its peak October.

Kneel on the damp bare sand to find the tiny rosettes, each leaf fringed with glistening red-tipped glue; in spring they send up a thin stalk of small white-to-pink flowers. The flowers are small; kneel anyway, for the glue.

Flowers September to December, at its peak October to November.

After warm rain, look for little violet-purple flowers held on fine stems above the wet sedgeland, each shaped like a tiny apron. Below the surface the plant runs the spring-loaded suction traps that catch water-fleas.

Flowers October to February, at its peak November to December.

Stout crimson bottlebrush-spikes, often flushed green at the tips, on a stiff shrub of the wet sand-heath. A honeyeater favourite through the warm months.

Flowers September to December, at its peak October to November.

Low tufts of stiff, grassy leaves throw up short stalks of silky, three-petalled violet-purple flowers — each bloom open only for a morning, so the show runs as a daily relay right through spring.

Flowers August to November, at its peak September to October.

The classic papery gold daisy, crisp to the touch and long-lasting, scattered through heath and forest clearings from spring into summer.

Flowers September to January, at its peak October to November.

An upright, bottlebrush-like spike packed with hundreds of small golden flowers, out of which curve long wiry styles hooked and often dark red or black, the 'hairpins' of the name. A key nectar source through the lean cold months.

Flowers April to August, at its peak June to July.

Tall, mottled-barked gum that stages one of the great winter nectar events, its high crown clouded with cream blossom. Listen for lorikeets and honeyeaters working it in the cold, when little else is flowering.

Flowers June to September, at its peak July to August.

Deeply furrowed, near-black bark on a fine, willowy-leaved crown that carries clouds of cream blossom into the cooler months. That out-of-season nectar is a lifeline for honeyeaters, lorikeets, gliders and flying-foxes; exact timing shifts year to year.

Flowers June to September, at its peak July to August.

Bark like crocodile hide, broken into small square tiles, under a summer crown of scented cream blossom that pulls in a riot of lorikeets and honeyeaters by day and flying-foxes by night.

Flowers January to March, at its peak January to February.

A tall forest gum with a rough dark stocking low on the trunk and smooth bark above, flowering cream through late spring and summer. A heavy nectar tree; exact timing varies with the season.

Flowers October to January, at its peak November to December.

A smooth-barked gum of the floodplain edges, often left standing lonely in a paddock, that flowers cream-white through winter into spring. A favoured koala and nectar tree; flowering years are irregular.

Flowers July to October, at its peak August to September.

Soft, fibrous, reddish-brown bark you can dent with a thumbnail, under a crown of cream blossom in spring and early summer. Where it grows beside grey gum you are standing in the best koala browse the open forest offers.

Flowers September to December, at its peak October to November.

A towering, pale blue-white column rocketing out of the moist gully floor, carrying cream blossom in the cooler months. Among the tallest of all eucalypts; flowering timing is variable.

Flowers May to August, at its peak June to July.

Bright golden flower-rods light up the dry forest through late winter, one of the first wattles to signal the turn toward spring. Germinates in dense flushes after fire.

Flowers July to September, at its peak August.

A soft, fine-leaved wattle that turns a haze of pale gold in late winter and spring, its tiny fringed leaflets giving it a feathery look. A reliable early splash of colour in the open forest.

Flowers August to October, at its peak September.

Male and female flowers sit on separate trees: in autumn the males flush a whole crown rusty-orange with pollen, while females carry tiny crimson-styled flowers that harden into the cones the glossy black-cockatoo lives on. The 'needles' are green branchlets, not leaves.

Flowers March to June, at its peak April to May.

A tall spear rising from the shaggy mophead crown, packed with hundreds of small nectar-rich cream flowers. Flowering is triggered by fire, so a whole recently burnt hillside will spear into bloom at once the following spring.

Flowers August to November, at its peak September to October.

Not a true gum: its glossy leaves gather in rosettes at the branch tips, and in early summer it opens small white flowers with the stamens bundled into five neat tufts. Favours the sheltered, moister, fire-shadowed ground.

Flowers November to January, at its peak December.

The famous scribbled trunk, and above it a summer haze of small cream blossom working with lorikeets and gliders. The scribbles are old insect tunnels; the flowers are the season's nectar.

Flowers October to December, at its peak November.

A wiry climber running over low scrub and fence-lines, hung through late winter with sprays of deep violet pea-flowers, each with a lime-green fleck at the throat — one of the first big colours of the turning year.

Flowers July to September, at its peak August.

In the depth of winter a spindly forest shrub suddenly runs violet-purple pea-flowers up its stems — an early promise that the year has turned.

Flowers June to August, at its peak July.

Airy sprays of small nodding blue stars with bright yellow centres held above strappy leaves, followed by glossy violet berries. One of the most widespread flowers of forest, heath and dune.

Flowers August to November, at its peak September to October.

A gnarled gum relative that froths with fluffy cream blossom at the height of summer, joining the bloodwoods to feed the lorikeet swarms.

Flowers November to January, at its peak December.

Pale, papery-barked trees of the wet hollows, smothered when they bloom in creamy bottlebrush spikes dripping with nectar. A whole swamp in flower lays on one of the largest free meals in the landscape, and can summon lorikeets and flying-foxes from tens of kilometres away.

Flowers March to June, at its peak April to May.

A stout, dark-crowned gum in thick, soft reddish bark on the firmer ground around the swamp, and one of the heaviest nectar trees on the coast. It flowers through the cooler months, feeding honeyeaters and flying-foxes at the leanest time of year.

Flowers May to August, at its peak June to July.

A low, broad-leaved banksia of the wet sand, carrying big upright brushes that open an odd metallic blue-green and age to bronze-gold, held over a long summer-into-autumn season. Unmistakable once you spot the colour.

Flowers December to May, at its peak February to April.

Round pads and star-shaped, pale violet-blue flowers floating on the open water of the everglades and lagoons through the warm months. The pads are a floating pavement that shelters fish below and lets the lily-trotter walk above.

Flowers November to March, at its peak December to February.

A big, strappy-leaved lily of wet ground and estuary margins, throwing up heads of white, spidery, sweet-scented flowers through summer. Common along the fresh-to-brackish fringe.

Flowers November to February, at its peak December to January.

In early summer this melaleuca turns a drift of pure white, its fine bottlebrush flowers so dense they nearly hide the foliage, hence the name. A paperbark of damp lowland ground.

Flowers November to December, at its peak December.

A wiry shrub of damp heath and swamp edges scattered with small, five-petalled white-to-cream tea-tree flowers through late spring and early summer. Fine-leaved and often arching over water.

Flowers October to December, at its peak November.

A low swamp-edge shrub studded through the warm months with soft mauve-purple claw-flowers, each like a tiny lilac firework, and quick to bloom after rain.

Flowers November to March, at its peak December to January.

A rainforest tree that drops its leaves and then blazes entirely scarlet, a whole crown of small bell flowers glowing red against the green hinterland. Flowering is irregular and spectacular, so a good year is worth a trip.

Flowers November to January, at its peak November to December.

A slender rainforest tree whose spring flowers open cream and age to deep yellow, throwing a strong sweet scent across the gully. Not a true frangipani, but the perfume earns it the name.

Flowers September to November, at its peak October.

Clusters of flowers arranged in a perfect spoked wheel, glowing red and orange against dark glossy leaves, through late summer and autumn. One of the show-stoppers of the subtropical scrub.

Flowers February to April, at its peak March.

Along stream margins, look for weeping branches hung with bright red bottlebrush spikes in spring, dripping nectar for honeyeaters and lorikeets. It flowers mainly in spring, with sporadic bursts after rain.

Flowers September to November, at its peak October to November.

Fluffy white powderpuff flowers through early summer, later setting the glossy pink-red berries the birds strip. A common tree of rainforest and its margins, and of creek banks.

Flowers November to January, at its peak December.

Tell it by the smooth green crownshaft below the fronds and the sprays of lilac-mauve flowers that hang from it in summer, later setting bunches of round fruit that ripen bright red for the fruit-doves.

Flowers December to March, at its peak January to February.

For a few weeks in late spring the whole crown turns to great combs of glowing orange nectar, loud with lorikeets from dawn. Australia's tallest grevillea, a tree of rainforest margins and old range paddocks.

Flowers October to November.

A vigorous rainforest-margin climber that pours out sprays of small cream trumpets, blotched maroon in the throat, high along the canopy edge through spring.

Flowers August to November, at its peak September to October.

A big, buttressed rainforest tree that fringes its branches with bell-shaped white flowers in spring, later dropping the hard blue marbles that give it its name.

Flowers September to November, at its peak October.

In autumn the branch-forks and trunk crowd with clusters of bright pink flowers, a magnet for butterflies by day and flying-foxes by night — a late splash of colour once the rainforest has mostly finished.

Flowers February to April, at its peak March.

Big, papery hibiscus flowers — cream to soft pink with a deep maroon eye — opening one at a time along a tall, prickly shrub of rainforest margins and regrowth through summer.

Flowers November to February, at its peak December to January.

The dominant mangrove of the coast, breathing through a bed of pencil-roots and, in summer, carrying small orange-yellow flowers the bees work hard. Look for the faint crust of exuded salt on the leaves.

Flowers December to March, at its peak January to February.

A shrubby, many-stemmed mangrove of the upper estuary that smothers itself in clusters of small, sweet-scented white flowers, worked hard by bees. Its fruit is a small green curved horn.

Flowers October to January, at its peak November to December.

A she-oak of the brackish fringe with fine weeping branchlets, its sexes on separate trees; in autumn and winter the males flush rusty-brown with pollen and females carry tiny crimson flowers. Suckers into dense stands on saline mud.

Flowers April to June, at its peak May.

A fat-leaved, water-storing groundcover sprawling over the open dune, studded through the warm months with improbable magenta daisy-like flowers. One of the pioneers pinning the foredune together.

Flowers September to January, at its peak October to December.

A beach morning-glory throwing purple-pink trumpet flowers and long runners metres across the bare sand, like rope flung across a deck. A foredune builder, flowering right through the warm season.

Flowers November to April, at its peak December to February.

The sprawling, silvery coastal grass that pins the open sand; in late spring the females throw up spiky, spherical seed-heads that snap off and cartwheel down the beach on the wind. You notice the tumbling seed-heads long before you'd notice a flower.

Flowers October to January, at its peak November to December.

A tough, grey-green headland shrub dotted with small white-to-mauve flowers for much of the year, including right through winter when little else on the coast is blooming. Rosemary-like in leaf, not scent.

Flowers June to November, at its peak September to October.

A gnarled, salt-shaped tree of the back dune with dark leaves silvery beneath, carrying pale lemon-yellow flower-brushes through autumn and winter. A dependable cold-season nectar source for honeyeaters and lorikeets on the coast.

Flowers February to July, at its peak April to June.

A low, fleshy dune plant scattered with small fan-shaped mauve-blue flowers (all the petals swept to one side) and, later, purple berries. A foredune stabiliser that flowers across the warm months.

Flowers September to February, at its peak October to December.

A sprawling, salt-hardy wattle of the back dune, its bright golden flower-rods lighting up the coast through late winter and spring. Helps bind the sand behind the pioneer zone.

Flowers July to October, at its peak August to September.

A wind-shorn, twisted shrub-tree of the front dunes that smothers itself in small white five-petalled flowers in spring, holding the seaward sand against the salt wind.

Flowers August to October, at its peak September.

A robust dune trailer that runs pink-purple pea-flowers over the open sand through summer, often threading through the goat's-foot on the foredune.

Flowers November to March, at its peak December to February.