Pink Flannel Flowers are truly amazing, every one of them looks like a delicate jewel brooch. While there are many places to see them, this spot is handy and accessible. Each flower is a bit smaller than a 20c piece.
“On a stony, bushfire-ravaged slope overlooking a Blue Mountains valley near Katoomba, NSW, ultra-rare pink flannel flowers bloom in their thousands, bringing new life and colour to landscape still charred by the fiery summer of 2019/20.
Pink flannel flowers (Actinotus forsythii) only occur in scattered parts of eastern Australia, from the Blue Mountains to north-eastern Victoria. They favour heath and open forest areas at altitude. While not endangered as a species, they appear so infrequently that many bushwalkers have never seen them.
The seeds can lay dormant for years on end, waiting for a special confluence of events forming the right conditions for their emergence – a year or so after bushfire followed by rainfall, which is exactly what the flower’s home turf experienced last year.”
