Wildflowers of Central Australia

Spring is a popular season for many people, a great time for a holiday break, and for the flora enthusiasts, the perfect period to experience and enjoy the wild flower season throughout Australia.

It is not just the wetter regions of Australia that have beautiful floral display, contrary to some beliefs, the arid heart of Central Australia can also put on a beautiful spring wildflower show.

In the spring of 2010 the ‘Red Centre’ was one of the most perfect places to visit for the spring display of wildflowers. The unusual amount of rainfall from the beginning of the year was the trigger for an event that happens approximately once every 15 years. For those who missed this event, they will have to wait for another unusual rainfall period. Yet you can still see wildflowers in the region, as you visit our parks and reserves, including the east and west MacDonnell Ranges.

For those driving to or through Central Australia, the landscape on either side of the highways and outback roads provide a glimpse of the natural beauty of the local landscape, with the opportunities to see flowering shrubs and trees, and swathes of plants in flower. Under the right conditions, visitors are greeted with the vistas of yellows, purples, blues, and much more.

If you are visiting Alice Springs you can get a close up view of the wonderful plant life, together with plant name tags at both the Olive Pink Botanic Garden and the Alice Springs Desert Park.

Check out our images of some of the flora to be seen here in Central Australia… (this page is currently being updated)…

FLORA INDEX
- Billy Buttons (Genus Calocephalus)
- Blue Pincushion (Brunonia australis)
- Broad-Leaf Parakeelya (Calandrinia balonensis)
- Bush Tomato / Bush Raisin (Solanum centrale)
- Cattlebush (Trichodesma zeylanicum)
- Georges Indigo (Indigofera georgei)
- Hairy Mulla Mulla (Ptilotus helipteroides)
- Orange Spade Flower (Hybanthus aurantiacus)
- Spreading Goodenia (Goodenia heteromera)
- Sturt’s Desert Pea (Swainsona formosa)
- Sturt’s Desert Rose (Gossypium sturtianum) – (Image featured at top)
- Upside-down Plant (Leptosema chambersii) © Greg Sully
- White Paper Daisy (Rhodanthe floribunda)
- Woolly-Headed Burr Daisy (Calotis plumulifera)