Description
“I am always drawn to and inspired by the amazing variety of colours and shapes found in our beautiful Western Australian flora and fauna and this is no exception. I recently discovered an amazing native Western Australian Butterfly called the “Turquoise Jewel” (Hypochrysops halyaetus) and I decided to place him among the strikingly beautiful orange Copper Cup Flowers (Pileanthus peduncularis). Although tiny flowers the bright orange and delicate hints of purple stand out amongst the dry light coloured sand they grow. Whilst tourists often come to my hometown of Mullewa for the carpets of everlastings – the bush flowers such as these (which come out later in October) are often just as striking and worthy of attention.” Helen Ansell
Coppercups (Pileanthus peduncularis) is an eye catching copper-orange to red flower growing in a massed display on a low and spreading perennial shrub, which grows to a height of 1.5 metres.
It blooms between August and December, in most places after the end of the normal ‘Wildflower Season’, on sand plains and sand dunes in the Pilbara, Mid West, Wheatbelt, and Swan Coastal Plain regions of Western Australia.
The Turquoise Jewel Butterfly (Hypochrysops halyaetus) lives in the south of Western Australia and has a wingspan of 3cm. They lay white 1 mm round flattened eggs, in clusters on a food plant. As Caterpillars they are attended by and live in the nests of particular ants.