Christmas tree (Nuytsia floribunda)
The Western Australian Christmas tree (Aboriginal name: mooja) is botanically interesting in being a very unusual mistletoe, growing in the ground as a tree, rather than on the branches of other trees.
It is famous for its brilliant masses of orange flowers, which in the Perth area are borne in late spring to early summer, the approach to Christmas.
It should be admired also for its distinctive and rather bizarre form.
© Text and photographs: Robert Powell