6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring

6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring



Spring has sprung and so have wild­flow­ers on Yorke Penin­su­la. See if you can spot these six on your next visit.


Spring is a great time to head to one of South Australia’s nation­al parks along the coast to take advan­tage of the warmer weath­er, sun­nier skies and ocean views.

Good rain­fall and cold tem­per­a­tures over win­ter have pro­vid­ed ide­al con­di­tions for the spec­tac­u­lar dis­play of native wild­flow­ers cur­rent­ly on show at Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park.

The park has more than 350 species of native plants, and 115 of those are plant species of con­ser­va­tion sig­nif­i­cance many of which are not found any­where else on Yorke Peninsula.

Why not try to spot this selec­tion on your next visit?

1. Tem­ple­to­nias (Tem­ple­to­nia retusa)

Tem­ple­to­nias are also known as Cocky’s Comb, Flame Bush or Cock­ies Tongue. As some of these names sug­gest, the flow­ers of this shrub resem­ble a cockatoo’s tongue or comb.

This strik­ing­ly-colour­ful shrub grows up to 2 metres in height, has large red and some­times yel­low flow­ers and the good news is, the flow­ers are in full bloom at the moment at Innes.

The retusa’ part of the shrub’s botan­i­cal name is derived from the Latin word retusus’, which means dull or blunt and refers to the blunt notched tips of the leaves. The Tem­ple­to­nia part of the botan­i­cal name is in hon­our of John Tem­ple­ton, an 18th cen­tu­ry Irish nat­u­ral­ist and botanist

6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring

2. Swamp Diuris (Diuris palus­tris) also known as Lit­tle Don­key Orchid

There are many Diuris orchid species in Aus­tralia. Diuris orchids are some of the best-known ter­res­tri­al orchids that are native to Australia.

Ter­res­tri­al means these beau­ti­ful plants grow on the ground, form­ing in large clus­ters because of the way their root sys­tem grows.

There are oth­er types of orchid species includ­ing epi­phyt­ic – which means they grow on trees and some which even grow underground!

Swamp Diuris flower between July and Novem­ber. Native small bees pol­li­nate them, lured to the flow­ers that mim­ic the flow­ers of the pea fam­i­ly (Fabaceae). Hov­er­flies (Syr­phid) and bee­tles can pol­li­nate these orchids as well. 

6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring

3. Coastal Beard-Heath (Leu­co­pogon pavi­florus) – also known as native currant

Native to Aus­tralia, this is a shrub or small tree in the fam­i­ly Eri­caceae. This species occurs in all Aus­tralian states (except the North­ern Ter­ri­to­ry) on sand dunes and heath­land. The white flow­ers are around 15 mil­lime­ters long and bloom in dense spiky groups of 7 – 13 flow­ers year-round.

The shrub also grows fleshy berries, which were an impor­tant food source for the Tra­di­tion­al Own­ers of the Yorke Penin­su­la, the Narung­ga peo­ple. Birds and emus will often eat these berries when fruit­ing occurs from spring to summer.

6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring

4. Native Pig­face (Car­po­bro­tus rossii)

Not to be con­fused with intro­duced pig­face which is yel­low in colour with daisy-like flow­ers, native pig­face has pink flow­ers with a white base. Native pig­face grows along the ground, with suc­cu­lent leaves and daisy-like flow­ers. It’s botan­i­cal name comes from the Greek word kar­pos which means fruit and bro­tus which means edible.

The Car­po­bro­tus species are some of the eas­i­est suc­cu­lents to grow and have been used to con­trol sand ero­sion. This species also has med­i­c­i­nal prop­er­ties and has been used as a bush med­i­cine to treat chron­ic diar­rhoea by help­ing to restore flu­id bal­ance and nutrients.

6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring

5. Nar­row-leaf Bush-Pea (Pul­te­naea tenuifolia)

The strik­ing flow­ers of the bush-pea attract native bees and oth­er pol­li­na­tors. The bush-pea is from the Fabaceae fam­i­ly and this name is Latin for bean’. The nitro­gen-fix­ing bac­te­ria found in its root sys­tem will ben­e­fit the soil wher­ev­er they grow.

6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring

6. Com­mon fringe-myr­tle (Calytrix tetrag­o­na)

You can find com­mon fringe-myr­tle all over Dhil­ba Guu­ran­da-Innes Nation­al Park at the moment, and you’ll know when you’ve found it when you spot a beau­ti­ful flower dis­play rang­ing in colour from white to pink. The Calytrix part of the plant’s botan­i­cal name comes from the Greek word mean­ing calyx and hair, which rep­re­sents the long fine hairs on the cup-like struc­ture sur­round­ing the base of the flower. Tetrag­o­nia is Greek for four-sided, which rep­re­sents the plant’s four-sided leaves. 

6 wildflowers you can see in Dhilba Guuranda-Innes National Park this spring

Read these blogs to learnwhere else you can find wild­flow­ers in SAand oth­ersigns that spring has sprung.


This con­tent was pro­duced in part­ner­ship with  Good Living