A discovery......

As I opened my curtains this morning and looked up into my Black Beech tree I noticed a slight glow of red, I blinked and blinked again as I had not seen this sight before.

Fumbling with the locked door my mind was in 'overdrive', is the tree flowering or perhaps I'm seeing things. I dashed outside with not a care for the rest of my garden and looked way up into the middle reaches of the tree, stretching my neck and almost falling backwards, it was such a long way up. I couldn't see properly as the sun was breaking out, but there was certainly red on the tips of the new growth, the lens would be my answer today.

The lens did in fact reveal tiny, tiny red flowers. The leaves of the black beech are only 1cm and sit comfortably on my thumbnail, the flower being even smaller. These flowers were half way up the tree, about 5-6 metres from the ground.

Why was I so excited over some tiny inconspicuous flowers, the Black Beech trees only flower every three years if conditions are right, creating a canopy of red over the entire forest and to have one in flower in my garden is quite a discovery!

Scientific name: Nothofagus solandri var. solandri
Common name: Black Beech
Maori name: Tawai Rauriki

Needless to say, I've not accomplished much today with spending most of my time trying to get a reasonable shot of these tiny flowers, while theres been little wind at ground level its surprising how much movement there's been in the trees.

Here's another view

Happy weekend to you all :)