Slender Bitter-pea (Daviesia leptophylla)

Despite the drought  many of the natives are flowering well, this one (Slender  Bitter-pea) favours skeletal 
soils on hillslopes and hilltops, it is one of five species of bitter pea that you can find in Windellama but definitely the most
common, most times of the year you wouldn't even notice this plant in the bush but certainly worth a second look at flowering,
 being a pea flower means it is also a legume and so enhances the soil by bringing valuable Nitrogen in.

I've seen large areas of Narrow Leaf Bitter Pea roots that have been dug up by animals, either Wombats or
Echidnas most likely, so they must also get some benefit out of the roots. Early settlers used the leaves from 
 the broader leafed Hop Bitter-pea ( Daviesia latifolia) in beer making and a preparation of the leaves is said to be good 
for treating fevers, I'll try and get a picture of this one soon, there are a few small patches of this one in Windellama.

Although a very common and widespread plant throughout the higher areas of NSW and Victoria there is very 
little information on Daviesia leptophylla online, it used to go by the botanical name of Daviesia virgata and if you have
older text books it will be there under that name. The seed pods are roughly purse shaped and rattle loudly when ripe.
 

Progress report on Dell the Koala

In the last Wild Windellama we had the story of Dell the sick Koala rescued in Windellama,
he spent 3 weeks in veterinary care in Goulburn, each day he would have an injection to treat
his Clamydia infection and then would have cream put in his eyes to help with their recovery.
He would bellow out a hello to his carer each morning and sharing a room with cats and dogs must
have been quite novel for him. He also loved to drink from a spray bottle and it was amazing to see his small
soft tongue darting in and out licking the water from the gum leaves, he also drank straight water from bowl
so that ends the theory about Koalas never drinking

We kept up the meals on wheels of Windellama gum leaves to the Goulburn Vets until he was 
transferred to the Wildlife Health and Conservation Centre at the University Of Sydney in Camden,
here he has been thouroughly examined during a general anaethsthetic and the damage to his 
retinas assessed, highly skilled Koala experts are trying new methods on Dell in an effort to
give him back as much sight in at least one eye as possible, it is hoped he will be able to be released
back into the bush in Windellama soon.