Wom Beach

I have had a request to wax aimlessly about some of the flora I have spotted here in PNG and to tell you the truth, the entire scene and the people of PNG makes for better subjects... However.

Recently, I had a moment spare at Wom beach. This beach is some 18kms North(ish) from Wewak which is situated on the North coast of PNG. Some 62 years ago, the boss of the Japanese Navy handed over his sword to the Allied defenders in a Surrender ceremony on the beach of Wom. The local community must have looked on with amazement has an entire garrison of Australian troops were present to witness the declaration. The locals must have thought that these Aussies and Asians were crazy.

Anywho, I recently had the opportunity to check out the beachfront not far from where the aforementioned ceremony took place. Along my trip into the coastal jungle of Northern PNG, I discovered a small collection of perty flowers. Sure, most of them (in fact, all) are found in Northern Queensland, it was nice to get a few snapshots away.

The first flower that caught my eye, was the delicate white simple flower of a Fig Tree. This Ficus grew (well I think it is a Ficus) right on the high tide mark, and had some decent fat fruit/nuts (perhaps the nuts raise doubt over whether it is a Ficus or not) but it did have white sappy sap...

Then, travelling along for a bit, I discovered a gorgeous sweet pink Lantana. So soft in colour and pretty as.

Oh, and I found a member of the Malvaceae family that I once thought was Alyogyne but I am probably wrong. A gorgeous yellow flower nonetheless.

A Clitoria was discovered and photographed too :)

There was other stuff, grasses and weeds and blue flowering thingos, but it was all fun.