Snapshots: Olive Pink Botanic GardenAboriginal Tradition Crimson Fox Tail Sturt Bean Tree / Bat’s Wing Coral Tree Wild Passionfruit

Olive Pink Botanic Garden

Located in the heart of Australia in Alice Springs, the Olive Pink Botanic Garden offers the visitor a great place to view the native flora, set against the back drop of the hills and ranges. Founded in 1956 as the Australian arid regions flora reserve, the garden was established by the extraordinary Miss Olive Muriel Pink (1884-1975).

The garden is a living breathing thing, responding to climatic changes such as rainfall that often brings on the appearance of flowers and through the changes in temperature brought on by the cycle of the seasons.

The Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), also known as the Bat’s Wing Coral Tree, appears to be one of Miss Olive Pink’s favourite plants, as she planted over 30 of the trees from seeds that she had collected from Aileron Station in the 1960s. She had recorded in her diary notes names of various dignitaries against individual trees. Today only two of these trees still survive in the garden (most probably because this species is very frost sensitive and not suited to our cold winters).

The Bat’s Wing Coral Tree gets its name from the resemblance of the leaves to a bat’s open wings. The term vespertilio meaning bat, makes reference to the ‘bat shaped leaves’ found on this tree. The this deciduous tree can grow anywhere between 6 to 12 metres in height, has a smooth corky grey-brown bark and thorns that appear on the trunk and branches of the tree.

The flowers appear in winter to spring, are scarlet or orange-red in colour. The flowers are tubular, 3-5 cm long, in clusters of 1-3 racemes 10-30 cm long. The striking coloured seeds are scarlet to dark red, in seed pod that are 5-10 cm long.

Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio)
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio)
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio)
Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Seeds of the Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Seeds of the Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Leaves of the Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.
Leaves of the Sturt Bean Tree (Erythrina vespertilio), Olive Pink Botanic Garden.

Snapshots: Olive Pink Botanic GardenAboriginal Tradition Crimson Fox Tail Sturt Bean Tree / Bat’s Wing Coral Tree Wild Passionfruit

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