Croc Shock
We have some of the best plants and birds where I live. We have the deadliest snakes in the world, deadly crocodiles and huge spiders. But we also win on another count – our weeds are pretty awesome as well.
If I moved to a cooler climate I’d probably take some of these weeds with me (and get arrested at the border). Just kidding, mum 🙂
First on the list is convolvulus (Wikipedia tells me that some species of convolvulus are globally threatened – not in my neck of the woods!)
It looks pretty, until…
…the farmer sees it in the paddock strangling the sugar cane
Blue Mist (below) has not been declared a pest here, yet – but it’s on it’s way up the charts.
The next one is completely unknown to me. It looks like a Singapore Daisy, but it doesn’t carry the same characteristics. It’s a mystery…
Then we have Lantana. Very pretty, but very destructive.
And the next one is completely unknown to me. Red waxy leaves and a weird green nose. At first I thought it could be a Micky Mouse plant, but I was wrong because I found one of those a few minutes later…
Here is the Micky Mouse plant
And last but not least, one of the worst weeds in Australia – the awesome Blackberry
Some of our weeds are very pretty. Unfortunately they’ve chosen the wrong place to grow.
I continued happily on my way after taking these pics and then I saw this.
I nearly stepped on it!
For a second I thought it was a crocodile head – luckily it was only a tree root 😀
Have a great week!
Dianne Gray author 
OMG! croc head? do you have a river/creek nearby? Blackberries are also ‘weeds’ here but they are everywhere (to our delight). I have to agree some weeds are beautiful 🙂
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There are plenty of rivers and creeks, Yolanda – luckily this one was just a piece of wood otherwise I would have been out of there like a shot! 😉
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Weeds sometimes taste really good. 🙂 So glad that was a wood head and not a croc head. 😉
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I was glad it was just wood too, Jackie 😉 Those black berries are yummy, but unfortunately a major pest (not for my tummy though) 😉
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My friend has lantana in his yard. The hummingbird moths love it.
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We got a lot of moths around here and butterflies – that’s one great thing about those weeds that have beautiful flowers 😀
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Lovely selection of flowers–and roots. Sure scared the heck out of me!
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I’m glad you like the flowers too, Joy. They’re so pretty, it’s a shame they’re classified as weeds. I sent the photo of the tree root to my friend next door and he was shocked too. He really thought I’d found a croc head – lol 😀
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With weeds that pretty, who needs flowers? But I could see how they could be troublesome if they threaten the sugar cane. Glad you avoided crocodile head!
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Too right, Carrie! These weeds are awesome. Things I struggled to grow in a cold climate just jump out of the ground here. It’s a gardeners dream (and nightmare) lol 😀
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Wow! That root would send me running, Dianne. 🙂 What beautiful weeds you have. Ours aren’t nearly as colorful.
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It would be a lot easier to throw them in the rubbish of they didn’t have these lovely flowers, Jill! 😀
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Weeds can be great unless you have to yank them out. These are such beautiful varieties. Thanks for sharing the differences in your part of the world.
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You have great photos on your blog too, Nancy. I love the idea of your hobby farm 😀
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Hard to believe these beautiful flowers are weeds.
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It certainly is, Colline. They are very pretty indeed 😀
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At first glance that tree root would have your heart beating faster Dianne. Do you have rivers with crocs on your property? Those weeds are so pretty but real threats to the natives. I’m guessing most of them came out with the pioneers.
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Yes we have a river, but there are no crocs in it (as far as I know) 😀 It’s a fresh water mountain stream and probably too shallow in parts for any crocs to get here. Having said that – there are some only a few kilometres away that come upstream when it floods. I used to work in a croc farm so I’m pretty wary when it comes to these monsters 😀
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Work in a croc farm???? Wow that would be interesting.
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It was very interesting. One of my jobs was to get the little crocs out so the tourists could hold them and take photos. Strangely enough I was never bitten. The best part was when my relatives arrived from the UK and I took them to the croc farm one night to watch the croc eggs hatch – they held the hatchlings and absolutely loved it! I really wish I’d had a camera back then…
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Fascinating memories…
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Wow, that tree root would have fooled me too, Dianne. Those weeds are so pretty. When we eventually move over to the renovated house, I would love to kidnap Mr. A and plant him in our lake there, as there doesn’t seem to be an alligator there. 🙂
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Yes – kidnap Mr. A, that would be easy. Just smile and ask him to hop in the back of the car 😀 It would be awesome to have your own alligator 😉
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I saw 3 iguanas on the back lawn today, but I still need an alligator. 🐊
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Hey! You put a cute little croc on the end of your comment. I love it!
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In California, lantana is a desired, drought resistant garden plant! You have cool looking weeds, except for that blackberry, which, in my books, isn’t a weed at all. (I think blackberries are everywhere and it’s their job to hold the planet together.)
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If they hold the planet together, they’re certainly holding this farm together, Alta. And they’re tasty 😉
I think the lantana is very pretty and would grow it in my garden if it wasn’t on the number one pest list.
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OMG, favorite Australian Author Dianne Gray! These pictures are truly amazing – you have become quite the photographer in your new surroundings in the country, and I totally get that! Splendid! And can I tell you that tree trunk would have ended my life if I’d walked up to it unawares…heart attack city. Looked just like a croc to me!! Be careful!! 🙂
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I’m really glad you like the photos, Sheila 🙂 Now I’m blushing xxx
That tree root nearly ended me. The only thing that kept me together when I saw it was that the faithful hounds hadn’t barked at it (and that’s not a pun) lol 😀
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Thank God for the faithful hounds!
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And don’t we both know it! 😀
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I love wild plants. There’s so much about them we ignore because they’re classified as ‘weeds’. Interesting pics, Diane.
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Thanks, Jacqui. I love taking pics and this is certainly the perfect place to do it! 😀
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That’s the reason those weeds are here in the first place. Pretty enough for gardeners to want to bring cuttings & plants with them, hardy enough to survive the trip… and then become invasive.
mmmmm… love blackberries, wish they weren’t classified as noxious species.
You have interesting tree roots in your parts 🙂
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You’re exactly right, Dale. The pretty flowers are tempting us to take them wherever we go – LOL, nasty little things 😉
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OMG, that root croc – scared the heck out of me. I don’t even like pictures of crocs!
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I know how you feel, Sharon – it scared the life out of me too!
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Love your weeds and that croc head, crikey!!!
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Crikey is the word, Nancy. Love it! 😀
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Your red waxy flower looks like it might be the Hoya family – or maybe Crowea? I love Clematis, but can’t grow the gorgeous big purple flowering ones. So I have Clematis Tangutica – which has now been declared a weed too. Grows perfectly for me! Until somebody tells me it has to go, it’s staying. And I have a lovely purple flower growing rampant in my perennial bed this year. I think it’s a Hyssop of sorts. Technically a weed I believe, but it has a really nice bloom. Lantana I put into my planters to attract butterflies and bees, but they won’t winter in Calgary. Are your yellow ones possibly Hawkweed or Milk Thistle?
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Thank you for all this information, Suzan. Now I come to think of it that red one does have all the hallmarks of a Hoya. I’ll do more online searching and check out the Hawkweed and Milk Thistle as well. You’re a star! 😀
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Wow, it really does look like a croc at first glance. How freaky. We were interested to see lantana growing as an ornamental plant in many English gardens. The cooler climate must keep it under control.
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Some of the US comments here have also said they like lantana and it grows in their gardens to attract butterflies – so I guess it must remain under control in the cooler climates.
I sent the photo to my adjoining neighbour just after I took it and told him there were crocs in the paddock. He said he had to look twice before he realised I was joking – lol (lucky he didn’t have a heart attack) 😉
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I love someone with an imagination as inventive as mine. Croc head, indeed! Lovely pix of your local fauna. I think the Mickey Mouse plant is my fav. 🙂
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I love that Mickey Mouse plant as well, Jill. It’s strange, but I walk that track every day and have never noticed it before. There are many things I don’t notice and then they suddenly jump out at me. I figure it must be the position of the sun. Some days it just lights specific areas up. Who knows what’s there that I have yet to discover! 😉
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The weeds in Wisconsin are just damn hardy. None compare to your beautiful flowering culprits. I wonder sometimes who decides what’s a weed and what’s a flower. I know dandelions that live and thrive here were brought over by the Pilgrims several centuries ago who used them for salad and wine. Hmmmm…..Great post as always, Dianne. Love seeing your country.
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You’d think these pretty flowers wouldn’t be hardy but they are, Barb. I love the way you call them the flowering culprits! Well named 😀
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Your pictures are beautiful. Hope you are doing well. 🙂
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I’m going very well and I’m so glad you like the pics 😀 I hope all is good in your neck of the woods as well xxx
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Those flowers are beautiful– until they reach the garden. That thing you call a blackberry isn’t the same as in the States. Blackberries can be invasive, but they’re oh so good to eat. As a kid I used to pick them and sell for 25 cents a quart. I was always fighting wasp and bleeding by the time I had enough to sell.
I would have jumped too after seeing the root crock!
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These blackberries are also very yummy, Dannie 🙂 You must have been a very hard little worker to go through all that painful picking to sell them – good on you! (that would make a great basis for a story) 😀
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The wild flowers are beautiful. It’s to bad they are so invasive. We have beautiful flowers here also that are considered weeds. Probably every flower ever found has been considered an invasive weed before it was tamed and planted into gardens.
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You’re exactly right. The flowering ones are pretty and I’m sure the early settlers thought so and carried them all the way over here to plant in their gardens. It’s not until they take off in the wild that there then considered a pest. oops! 😉
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Goodness, it does look like a croc!!! I’ve only seen crocs once when I was in Florida. Such prehistoric creatures!
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They’re amazing and built to look like a log or stone – if I had seen that tree root in the water I would have run for the hills!
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Such pretty weeds. I had Lantana in Vegas and loved it. It’s pretty hardy there and comes in all sorts of colors. I don’t have it now. I don’t think it would like the cold winters in Idaho. I’m glad that wasn’t a croc. Yikes that it could have been.
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Lantana is so very pretty, Char. Each flower head looks like a little posy. It definitely does well in the warmer climates and I guess that’s why it’s rampant here 😉
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You’ve got to move, Dianne! 🙂 Beautiful but destructive flowers! You almost step on a croc that wasn’t! (Sure looked like a croc!) You’ve got to slip over into the ‘fantasy’ genre and write a book… I’m thinking you can use this title: “This is No Croc.” ♥
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Haaaa! I love that title, Billy Ray. You’re so very clever with words 😀
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Very inventive, you make even weed look so good:-)
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LOL – thank you so much, Cocoa! 😀
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I have blackberry and red raspberries growing in my backyard. They do take over, but I do my best to keep them maintained all because they bear so much fruit that I pick and freeze to use over the winter.
One terrible weed I can’t stand is called ‘bamboo’. It’s so invasive and nothing pretty about it. Your weeds could easily be mistaken for purposely planted flowers!
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We also have bamboo here, Kate. Yikes – it’s awful! The blackberries would be lovely if they were controlled, but the birds eat them and then poop the seeds everywhere (nasty for clothes on the line). But all berries are very yummy and good for you 😉
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If weeds like that could be found around here we could make a no-maintenance garden out of them. The wilder, the better. 🙂 Probably a good thing that your croc wasn’t any wilder though.
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That’s a very good thing, Sheila – I’m not a big fan of wild crocs 😉
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Glad to see that croc wasn’t flesh and blood! That would’ve gotten my heart pumping! 🙂 It’s a shame that what is a lovely, useful plant (or animal) in its native environment can be a nuisance or disaster in another. I think there’s probably a philosophical lesson in there…. 😉
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It really is a shame, JM and you’re right about the philosophical lesson – I think it relates to ‘weeds’ in our lives and control over our environments (which is not an easy thing) 😉
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Those are some beautiful weeds, Dianne. We have Lantanas as a plant in our backyard. 🙂 It’s actually grown way too big so I can see how it can be destructive. Thank goodness that wasn’t a croc! You just never in Australia, do you? I’m sure it’s better to be safe and assume the worst.
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Better to be safe than sorry, Amy 😉
I’m really glad you like the weeds – they are very pretty indeed. It’s just a shame they’re weeds 😉
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Great pictures! We had the experience in both Australia and India of seeing flowers growing in the ditches that would cost a mighty sum in our local flowers stores. We just soaked them in visually, and think of the countries when we see them now.
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I had a friend visit from England and she was astounded by the weeds. She said she would have to pay for them in her town. It just goes to show that weeds really are just a beautiful plant that grows where it’s not wanted 😉
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Gorgeous photos – and interesting how what are considered weeds in one country are cultivated in another! I used to plant lantana when I lived in Spain – and I have a bamboo ‘hedge’ here in Ireland.
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They really are so pretty it seems a shame to have to pull them out. I planted sunflowers next to the house last year and now I’ve noticed the seeds must have blown into the sugar cane field and now they are growing there – oops!!! 😉
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I remember from my time Down Under how you’re not allowed to take any vegetation (not even an apple from the grocery store) across state borders. Islands, even very large ones like Oz, have such unique and sensitive biogeography, so it’s a smart precaution.
That tree trunk totally look’s like a croc’s head! My heart would have been in my mouth.
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We were stopped at the airport scanner one day because my son had a baseball in his bag and they thought it was an apple. Yikes, that wasn’t a nice experience 😉
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Oh, dear! Glad it turned out well.
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Me too, Cynthia! 😀
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Dianne my husband completed a bush regeneration course many years ago and he learned that some weeds we actually need for the bird and insect life. They now leave the lantana in some areas because it shelters small birds. So now when I see weeds I see more than just a weed. Some of them are really pretty too. Love the Croc head and happy it was only a tree. I bet you jumped though? I know I do if I see a stick on the ground that moves.
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I’d love to do a bush regeneration course, Kath, that sounds really interesting.
You talking about the stick on the ground reminds me of one of our dog walks when I saw a stick on the ground and said to hubby (who was walking while looking backwards), ‘Is that a stick?’ Just as I said it he turned and looked down and the stick moved. He hopped over it (it was an awesome move for a big man) and it slithered away into the cane. Yikes! I laughed, but I guess it really wasn’t that funny 😀
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Dianne its always funny in hindsight, especially the close encounters. My hubby had a snake go right passed his legs whilst he was talking to his boss, they both laughed at the cheek of the snake. Me, not so much, Im usually a bit shaken if i see one on my walk, rather see them when Im in my car and safe. Observe their beauty from a distance.
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LOL at the tree root/crocodile head. 🙂 I used to have a yard full of blackberry bushes growing up. We’d pick them every summer. But man they took the entire yard over. What gorgeous weeds you have indeed.
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The blackberries taste nice, but they just grow out of all proportion 😉 I’m glad the tree root/crocodile head. gave you a good giggle xxxx
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pretty pretty weeds but freak me out with that tree root!! 😉
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It certainly is a beauty! 😉
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That DOES look like a crocodile head! Wild! Great pics as always! 🙂
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Thank you for the lovely compliment on my pics. I’m still learning, but i think I’m starting to ‘get it’ 😀
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I’m on the side of the weeds – they deserve to be appreciated more and photographed as sympathetically as you have done Dianne.
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Awww – thanks, Roy 😀
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