Botanists, gardens, and botanic gardens. If I had the chance, I would spend all my time walking around botanic gardens, talking to botanists, and writing about plants and the people who study them. In late May, I had the privilege of interviewing five professional botanists about their own gardens. …

Sometimes you see them — Some time ago — I’m not sure when because the years roll into each other — a Freshwater Crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni) appeared in Lake Eacham (yidyam) on the Atherton Tablelands, Far North Queensland. It probably didn’t make its own way there. Although Freshies are found all across tropical Australia, they…

The scourge of my plants — Life is up and down at the moment with the increasing pressure of finding a new place to rent, so I’ve been throwing myself into my plants. (Not literally, of course. Although there was a dodgy moment at the nursery when I tripped over a tree root and almost landed…

A celebration of the colourful and rare — My bird-watching friend Simon is telling me about the parrots he sees on his daily walks around Canberra. It is a long list, which includes five types of cockatoos. When he gets to the tenth parrot species — “red-rumps. Everyone loves those” — he stops to think. …

A strange case of mistaken identity — I’ve taken ages to write this — not because it’s difficult, but because it doesn’t have a punchline. But does every piece need to finish neatly? Years ago on a visit to the Natural History Museum — when it was still called the British Museum (Natural History) — I saw…

Well, just three at the moment…but it’s early days — In Far North Queensland, it seems that every garden and street corner flower bed is planted with hibiscuses. Most are showy yellow cultivars, the colour of the sun and almost as bright, but scarlet flowers are a close second. …

An intergenerational project to restore the rainforest — Next to the old Eacham shire council chambers, on Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands, is a mosaic on a shop wall. One of nine made to commemorate the centenary of federation, the mosaic depicts a tropical rainforest. The centrepiece is a giant red cedar, a tree with timber once considered so valuable…

A leaf from a builder’s book — The Briar Silky Oak (Musgravea heterophylla, Proteaceae) is growing well. It was only about a foot tall when I got it, but the summer heat and rain have given it a fillip. It is now three times taller, and each new leaf is 18 inches long. …

Life can be a (window) pane — In this old house, the window glass is rippled. It looks like lizard skin or the confusion of prints in the sand at a waterhole. It offers privacy — of sorts — by breaking me into shards of colour. In the few minutes of dusk, when the sunlight takes the…