Tonight I will share a few pictures of flora at the zoo. I had thought about adding this post to my Flowers at the Zoo series, but since I am including a picture that doesn’t have a flower I thought I would use a different title.

Last weekend I visited the Taronga Zoo in Sydney. Whenever I visit a zoo I not only look at the animals, but also the environment that has been created for them.

I will start with a beautiful yellow hibiscus. I was focused on getting a picture of the flower center, so you do not see the entire flower. However, you do get a nice look at some of the details in the petals. This makes me think of a post titled Hemispheric Hibiscus.

There are a lot of ferns at the Taronga Zoo. Here is one where the fiddleheads are unrolling into fronds. I really like the geometric progression of the fronds. They are amazing in their symmetry.

I saw this kniphofia bloom at the zebra compound. This plant is more commonly known as the red hot poker. They are striking and the color really stands out. They are great flowers for attracting bees and hummingbirds.

For these last two pictures I do not have an identification. I do not have time tonight to search for them, but perhaps some of my readers may be able to identify them. I was thinking that maybe this was a type of orchid, but nothing like it showed up in a quick google search.

Unfortunately, the flowers at the zoo do not always have identifications and graphics about them like the animals do.

In any case, I really like this group of flowers. They are native to Malaysia or Southeast Asia as that was the area of the zoo where I found them.

I would really like to know what this flower is as it is really interesting how they open up. I like the contrast of the yellow and black as they are opening.

I guess I will just have to keep my eye out for an identification. Hopefully someone will see this and let me know what it is.

I hope that you enjoyed these flowers and fauna from the zoo.

Now to try and get some sleep. Unfortunately I am not tired, but need to get back on schedule.

Steven