Wildflowers series is back ~ Wild Elder

One of the more nondescript little white tree flowers, these are a welcome sight in late winter, and keep the bees alive. Wild elder, Nuxia floribunda is another fire adapted tree that forms as natural bonsai as it grows in among the rock formations. This little tree is decades old and this is its full size, it forms new little branches as it can and then waits patiently for the spring rains before it makes more leaves and branches

Here you can see how it grows straight out of the cracks in the rocks. Because the rocks were formed by the shattering of the earth's crust after the meteorite strike that created these ridges, they rocks hold a surprising amount of water for long periods. Yet another plant that evolved to survive in this particular environment over millennia. If it grows in soil, it can become fairly large but this little survivor does it's thing here in the rocks and escapes the regular fires that are a feature of natural grasslands.