The Ryno Pen

I may have missed my calling as a taxonomist of some sort: the ol’ pattern recognition skills come in handy for spotting and remembering plants and animals, not to mention a small-but-profitable sideline in found coins.

In any case, I’d seen the public-interest adverts on television regularly, and I knew the authorities were on the lookout… so I could almost have kicked myself when I realised I’d been passing by the hiding-place every couple of days, without noticing anything wrong.

^{Spot the lawbreaker}

No, not the chap on the cross, or the figure to the right. It isn’t the (absent) thieves from the flanking crosses, and it isn’t Wally (Waldo for the USA crowd).

It’s the nice orange flower-bells: Mother-Of-Millions. You could read all about this native of Madagascar on the link, or in this PDF, but in short it’s toxic to grazing stock, and spreads as prolifically as its name suggests. It’s a Schedule 2 notifiable noxious weed in Queensland.

I’ll be giving Father O’Migosh a phone call tomorrow morning.

Update: Just phoned It’s a doomed plant as of Saturday morning, and yes, Father was as Irish as Irish could be.

By the way, if you’re in Australia and you’ve got some of this nasty blighter growing on your land, you might check with your Primary Industries chappies about the best way to eradicate it.

G’night, Both My Readers™.