Hesperantha pauciflora mass action

More purple than pink in this large stand on a sandy flat, Hesperantha pauciflora can have a strong presence, albeit only late in the day. This is probably an abandoned field previously ploughed, a place favoured by this species.

Plants and animals don’t always take long when people become inactive in an area to claim residential rights, as has been seen during Covid-19 lockdown. Life is tougher to beat than any one species, while mastering an appropriate new adaptation shows what life force is really about.

The H. pauciflora flowers are angled up, as are the stems, as well as most of the leaves growing in a two-dimensional fan-shape; skew should not be underestimated (Manning and Goldblatt, 1997).