I’m excited!
As I sat with my back leaning on a shady boab today, I was startled by a large boab nut falling down to the ground in front of me.
Curious, I picked it up just as a few more feel down from 15 metres up.
They were cracked so I broke one open and tasted the dry white flesh coating the seeds. It kind of fizzed on my tongue, then melted. No distinct taste and only a very faint smell.
Then something extraordinary caught my eye!
On the grass was a 5inch or 15 cm long object- I picked it up and immediately smelt a divine perfume.
It was a boab blossom bud – snapped off in the strong gusting wind last night- already wilting.
Off I went on a blossom hunt armed with a camera and telescopic lens- and found lots of small buds as well as blossoms!
The buds burst into bloom during the night and usually fall by end of day and these ones are very early in the season as little rain has fallen so far.
The boabs growing near the retic system are already well covered with leaves in comparison to the ones which only rely on natural rainfall.
I had been hoping to see and smell these superb flowers but thought I would probably miss out as I will be in Victoria for a month.
It hadn’t even occurred to me to start looking yet until the nut dropped out of the sky this morning.
Although the blossoms were metres above me I could still smell them -then I realized that the fully developed blossoms that dropped on to the grass during the night were also scenting the air.
This perfume is kind of like frangipani but different too- I wonder why it is not collectd and used in making candles etc – it would unique Kimberly fragrance and as iconic as the Boab itself.
Yesterday I was excited about what I discovered, but today I am Over the Moon!!!
In the brilliant moonlight last night, look what bloomed right outside my shed roller door!
There was the odd waft of the superb perfume coming through the open windows during the night, but I kept telling myself that I was just remembering yesterday’s discovery.
They look like an instant wedding bouquet- like a wedding they only last 24 hours.
I had thought they were only blooming on the retic watering recipient trees but “NOT so!”
The rainfall dependent trees are blooming too!!!
You miss out big by visiting the Kimberly in the cold season, during the Hot Season Blooming Boabs, delicious mangos so plentiful some people actually break out in a rash from overeating them.