Strawflower
Xerochrysum bracteatum
Strawflower · Brooklyn Botanic Garden · 14 August 2025
What look like petals are papery bracts, stiff enough to keep their shape and colour long after the flower is cut and dried - the reason strawflowers have been grown for dried arrangements for generations.
Native to Australia, where it grows as a scrubland wildflower far scrappier-looking than the tidy garden forms. The bracts open and close with the humidity, even after the flower is dead, which is how it became a cottage barometer.
Birds, insects, plants and other wildlife, mostly from Brooklyn, with some from further afield.
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